UCMS runners impressing
September 12, 2024 at 12:16 p.m.
The Union County Middle School cross country team is growing this year. Last year, we had 5 boys and 5 girls, both teams just meeting the minimum team size to score as a team in the meets. This year, the team has grown to 25 total – 15 girls and 10 boys, only 5 of which are returning runners from last season.
Through the first 4 meets of this season, the kids have run in 2 invitationals with 14 & 8 opponents, and 2 smaller 3-way Meets with 2 opponents in each meet. The girls’ team has recorded in that stretch 23 wins and 3 losses (2 of which were Northeastern) and the boys’ team is sitting at 20 wins and 6 losses, but it’s not just the winning records that are so impressive this season.
Each year, Terre Haute hosts an Indiana State Meet for Middle School. The qualifying standards have gotten faster by 15 seconds per athlete on both the girls’ and boys’ side, requiring the girls to run 14:00 for a 3k (1.86 mile) race individually, and 70:00 for a combined time of their top 5 finishers in a meet for small schools. The boys must hit a time of 12:45 individually, and 63:45 for their Top 5, to average 12:45 per runner. In their first meet of the season, both teams hit the qualifying standard to earn a spot to run at State!
The girls’ team had 3 individual athletes hit the Standard – Henley Paddock (12:42), Maddie Carrell (13:16), and Kelsey Dare (13:57), with new runners Charlee Davis (14:17) and Madelyn Buell (15:01) rounding out their Top 5 for a total time of 69:13! On the boys’ side, we had 2 individuals hit the standard – Trey Baker (10:44) and Logan Hughes (12:11), with Aiden Otto (13:00), Carter Whittamore (13:42), and Lane Cantrell (13:55) rounding out the Top 5 with a combined time of 63:32 and hitting the Team Standard by 13 seconds!
This first race of the season, which was the first race for all but 7 of our runners, was held on Aug. 24th. It was fast enough to squeak into the Team Standards for State, but that would likely make us one of the slowest teams rubbing shoulders with the fastest small schools in the state of Indiana. Exactly 2 weeks later at Union City Sept. 7th, the Girls’ team bettered their Top 5 3k Effort time to 66:25, shaving 2:48 off their time, and the boys’ team posted a Top 5 3k effort of 59:07 to take 4:25 off their time! Both squads were runners-up.
With such an improvement in a 2-week period, I’m excited to see what the kids can do with four more weeks before the State Meet on Oct. 5th. The future is looking bright for these kids!
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The Union County Middle School cross country team is growing this year. Last year, we had 5 boys and 5 girls, both teams just meeting the minimum team size to score as a team in the meets. This year, the team has grown to 25 total – 15 girls and 10 boys, only 5 of which are returning runners from last season.
Through the first 4 meets of this season, the kids have run in 2 invitationals with 14 & 8 opponents, and 2 smaller 3-way Meets with 2 opponents in each meet. The girls’ team has recorded in that stretch 23 wins and 3 losses (2 of which were Northeastern) and the boys’ team is sitting at 20 wins and 6 losses, but it’s not just the winning records that are so impressive this season.
Each year, Terre Haute hosts an Indiana State Meet for Middle School. The qualifying standards have gotten faster by 15 seconds per athlete on both the girls’ and boys’ side, requiring the girls to run 14:00 for a 3k (1.86 mile) race individually, and 70:00 for a combined time of their top 5 finishers in a meet for small schools. The boys must hit a time of 12:45 individually, and 63:45 for their Top 5, to average 12:45 per runner. In their first meet of the season, both teams hit the qualifying standard to earn a spot to run at State!
The girls’ team had 3 individual athletes hit the Standard – Henley Paddock (12:42), Maddie Carrell (13:16), and Kelsey Dare (13:57), with new runners Charlee Davis (14:17) and Madelyn Buell (15:01) rounding out their Top 5 for a total time of 69:13! On the boys’ side, we had 2 individuals hit the standard – Trey Baker (10:44) and Logan Hughes (12:11), with Aiden Otto (13:00), Carter Whittamore (13:42), and Lane Cantrell (13:55) rounding out the Top 5 with a combined time of 63:32 and hitting the Team Standard by 13 seconds!
This first race of the season, which was the first race for all but 7 of our runners, was held on Aug. 24th. It was fast enough to squeak into the Team Standards for State, but that would likely make us one of the slowest teams rubbing shoulders with the fastest small schools in the state of Indiana. Exactly 2 weeks later at Union City Sept. 7th, the Girls’ team bettered their Top 5 3k Effort time to 66:25, shaving 2:48 off their time, and the boys’ team posted a Top 5 3k effort of 59:07 to take 4:25 off their time! Both squads were runners-up.
With such an improvement in a 2-week period, I’m excited to see what the kids can do with four more weeks before the State Meet on Oct. 5th. The future is looking bright for these kids!