Highlights: Four of the eight boys NTN Midwest ranked teams in the Franklin Central field, with MW#2 Warren Central winning with 92 points, followed by MW#4 Carmel 121, MW#6 Columbus North 138, MW#8 Hamilton Southeastern 146. Brock Hagerman shows he's all the way back with win over De'Sean Turner, 15:03-15:07. For the girls, MW#3 Carmel edged MW#5 Westfield 63-75. MW#10 Cathedral finished third with 89 points.
Special Franklin Central Report from David Luce
The central Indiana semistate meet, hosted by Franklin Central HS on the grounds of Central State Hospital in Indianapolis on October 22, was a major showdown on several different levels.
The meet featured four of the top eight ranked boys' teams in the Midwest: #2 Warren Central, #4 Carmel, #6 Columbus North, and #8 Hamilton Southeastern. In the latest state coaches' poll those four teams are ranked #1, #2, #4 and #3 in Indiana.
In the girls' team scoring, Midwest #3 Carmel clashed with #5 Westfield and #10 Cathedral. In the latest state coaches' poll those three teams are ranked #1, #2 and #3 in Indiana.
Individually, it was the first gathering of senior Brock Hagerman of Pendleton Heights, junior De'Sean Turner of Warren Central, and senior Justin Roeder of Hamilton Southeastern since last year's state meet. All have been named as runners to watch at the Foot Locker Midwest Regional this year.
Hagerman finished 13th in the state cross country meet as a freshman three years ago and fourth in the state cross country meet as a sophomore. As a sophomore he was ninth at the Foot Locker Midwest Regional -- he almost advanced to Foot Locker Nationals in San Diego, but he was outkicked in the final meters in Kenosha by senior Christian Wagner and juniors Ryan Gasper and Justin Switzer. Future Big 10 Conference runners Wagner, Gasper and Switzer were all timed in 15:26, with Hagerman one second behind.
As a junior Hagerman defeated Roeder in their cross country sectional and regional meets and then beat Turner and Roeder in the semistate; Hagerman's 15:02 sectional time was one of the fastest 5k times nationally last year. But recovery from the regional and semistate took longer than normal for Hagerman -- something wasn't right. In the state meet he led much of the way but faded during the last mile to 26th place, as Roeder won and Turner placed third. Five months later the problem was finally identified -- iron deficiency.
This past summer Hagerman built to a mileage peak with weeks of 90, 95 and 100 miles, then trimmed to 70 miles for most of the season. He measured his 1000m repeats workouts against those of 2003 Foot Locker national cross country champ Matt Withrow -- Withrow's repeat times were slightly faster, but Hagerman took less recovery time between reps. Four of the schools which Hagerman is interested in racing for next year are Arkansas, Notre Dame, Iona, and Air Force.
Turner and his Warren Central teammates trained hard this summer too, reported Warren Central head coach Joe Brooks. During the period of June-August, 10 of them each ran at least 500 miles. During the season the top guys have averaged 55 miles per week, with lactic threshold runs of 3-5 miles at least twice per week and a weekly long run of 60-75 minutes.
Roeder has been rebuilding during the past few months after a springtime stress fracture which prevented him from qualifying for the state track meet. He has raced sparingly this season: in his county meet against Carmel in late August, in his conference meet in early October, and in his regional meet one week before the semistate, with the highlight being his winning 15:36 5k on a conference meet course featuring two good hills. During the week leading up to the semistate, new Hamilton Southeastern head coach Joe Golden pointed out, "Our team is young. After Justin we have no seniors in our top seven. After Justin our next senior is our 9th man."
The semistate course, a new course this year after the loss of Southeastway Park, is a mostly-flat 5k grass course with a couple of rolling hills. At the 1600m mark the first five up front were senior Michael Pabody of Southport, junior Adam Green of Franklin Central, and Hagerman, Turner and Roeder. They went through in 4:49 -- that 1600m is net uphill because of a small hill on the opening straightaway, but Hagerman later said that they went through the first kilometer in 3:00, which "for this type of race that's pretty slow."
During the second 1600m Hagerman opened up a gap on Turner. Hagerman later said that his plan going into the race was to wait until at least 2.5k to make a move, and it turned out that he moved right at 2.5k. At 3200m the order was Hagerman, Turner, then a good gap back to Green, then another good gap back to Pabody and 1600m state champ Andy Weatherford of Greencastle and Turner's teammate Ondraius Richardson.
Carmel head coach Chuck Koeppen, who has won many armfuls of state cross country boys' and girls' team championship trophies in the last 30 years, said after the boys' race, "Halfway through the race we were probably giving Warren a pretty good scare, but then some of our guys faded toward the end." Warren Central won with 92 points, followed by Carmel's 121, Columbus North's 138, Hamilton Southeastern's 146 and Chatard's 171. Those five teams advanced to the state meet, which will be on Indiana State's course on October 29.
Hagerman finished in 15:03, one of the fastest 5k times nationally this season. Rod Hagerman, Brock's dad and also one of his track coaches, said that Brock held something back during the final kilometer.
Turner finished in 15:07, which was six seconds faster than he ran last week on the same course to win his regional meet. Green held on for third in 15:29, seven seconds faster than he ran last week on the same course.
Hagerman's teammate, junior Cole Hardacre, moved all the way up to fourth place by the end of the race. He said afterward that he came through the first kilometer in 3:06, well back of the leaders, and was in about tenth place at 3200m. He said that he ran an even pace the whole way, and guys came back to him late in the race. Hardacre's weekly mileage reached 80 this past summer. Pendleton Heights thought that they might be headed for the state meet podium when their fifth man ran 17:07 in their first meet this season, but that fifth man was later injured.
In the girls' race, three at the front of the pack at 1600m were freshman Katy Achtien of Cathedral and Lawrence North's Erika Utter and Rachel Ehret; they came through in 5:44. A week earlier in their regional meet on a different course their finishing order was Ehret first, Achtien second and Utter third, and four days before that in their sectional meet the finishing order was Achtien first, Ehret second and Utter third, but on the semistate course it was Utter with an upset victory in 14:38. Kristina Krasich of Westfield edged Achtien for second, with both being timed in 14:41. Maggie Bingham of Westfield placed fourth in 14:47.
Westfield head coach Scott Lidskin had this to say during the week leading up to the semistate: "We are ranked #5 in the Midwest, and yet we have to fight tooth and nail just to make it out of our semistate. Our semistate has six teams that could be in the top four at the state meet. The semistate, in some ways, is better than state! Our mission is to not underestimate the meet, and to run it like we don't have a state meet next week."
Lidskin was excited at the finish line, because his team put two in front of Carmel's #1, and a total of three in front of Carmel's #2, and a total of four in front of Carmel's #4. "I really like how our fourth runner ran today. Our fifth runner ran much better this week -- she's coming back from an injury."
Carmel's Koeppen said after the race, "Our girls ran pretty well, but it might not have been their best day." Carmel's #5 secured the win, and Carmel edged Westfield 63-75. Cathedral finished third with 89 points, Lawrence North fourth with 118, and Center Grove fifth with 152 to round out the five girls' teams advancing to the state meet.
Lidskin's point about the relative strength of the central Indiana semistate over the southern, northwest, and northeast semistates might resonate with the boys' teams of Perry Meridian, Franklin Central and North Central and the girls' teams of Columbus North, North Central and Chatard, which went into the semistate ranked #8, #17 and #19 and #6, #12 and #14 in the state coaches' poll and yet don't get to race in the state meet.
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