COMING THIS WEEK...
---Firecracker 4-mile on July 4th at Franke Park...
---Flotilla 8M/3.3M in Syracuse on July 4th...
---Loon Lake 5.5K July 4th...
---Topeka Road Run July 4th...
---Hot Onion 5K August 1 in Wolf Lake...

CURRENT CROSS COUNTRY TOPIC ON THE MESSAGE BOARD --- HERE
Are you seeing a pattern in our picks......of the top six girls teams? So far, it looks a whole lot like last year. Carroll, West Noble, Huntington, Northrop, and DeKalb all made it to the state finals - although not in that order.

The only team not yet on the list is Northridge. What do you think? Should we go with them for the other 2009 state-qualifier? Even though they return only two of their scorers from last year's semistate and finals team, geez, how can we leave them out with such a running tradition?

In or out - what do you say? Can it be possible that neither team from Middlebury will make it - when has that ever happened?

Njeri wins Heritage Days --- OVERALL RESULTS
Haynes-Apperson results --- HERE
Peter Casaletto winner of AmazinGrace in Goshen --- RESULTS
McKeighen wins Health and Wellness 5K --- RESULTS
Girls State Meet Highlights: Results on Message Board
---Kate DeSimone wins 1600m...Brett Hess narrates 1600 race --- HERE
---Samantha Ginther talks about her 1600m run --- HERE
---Sage Knopp 7th in 3200m...Listen to her comments --- HERE
---Brett calls the 3200m and talks to Kate DeSimone about her 1600 win --- HERE
---Carroll 7th in 4x800m relay...Comments from Jordan Mornout --- HERE
---Concordia 8th in 4x800m relay...Comments from team members --- HERE
Audio coverage on the boys state meet...
---James Martin comments on his 3200m run --- HERE
---Brett Hess narrates the 3200m run --- HERE
---Brett Hess narrates the 1600m run --- HERE
---Extended coverage of the 800m run --- HERE
---Homestead medals in 4x800m relay --- HERE
---Josh Graham talks about his 1600m run --- HERE
---Comments from Carroll's 4x800m relay team --- HERE
Mike Cole wins Bulldog Blast 5K --- COMPLETE RESULTS
Butler, Drake, Faulkner go 1-2-3 at Rockin' Road Runner 5K...
Comments from Coach Butler --- HERE
Comments from Corey Drake --- HERE
MAY 30 - Neal Butler, track and cross country coach at Grace College, thought he'd find out what kind of shape he's in after "hodge-podge" training this spring with his track team.
   Now that his season is over, Butler, 46, is back to road racing and won the Rockin' Road Runner 5K Saturday morning in Warsaw in 17:21.
   Corey Drake, one of Butler's former runners and high school star at Northrop, was second in 18:11. Justina Faulkner, the top woman, was third in 18:19.
   "Some days I can run with (the team) and a lot of days I can't, but my athletes come first," Butler said about his own training.
   Butler led from the gun on basically the same course to east side of Winona Lake used for the Frigid 5K in January.
 
BOYS REGIONAL PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS --- HERE
Carroll tops in distance --- Again...
MAY 28 - Carroll distance runners won all four distance events Thursday night at the Wayne Regional, just as they did a week earlier at the sectional.
   The Chargers led off the evening with a win in 8:05.43 over Homestead (8:06) and Marion (8:13) in the 4x800m relay. Teammates included Austin Kilmer, Nicholas Card, Michael Nussa and James Martin. Snider was fourth.
   Carroll's Robby Kleber cruised through the 1600m run in 4:24.92, outrunning Huntington's Josh Graham by two seconds down the homestretch. Prairie Heights sophomore Matt Perkins was third in 4:27 and Nussa placed fourth.
   Perkins later admitted he was nervous going into race but settled in with the leaders early.
  "I was psyching myself out before the race. Carroll, Huntington North are cross country powerhouses," he said  (Listen here to comments from Matt Perkins).
   Kleber came back to win the 800m run by taking over the lead just after the first lap and pulling away from Zeth Baker of DeKalb. Kleber's time was 1:56 and Baker's 1:57. Graham was third in 1:58.
   In the 3200m run, Huntington's Ross Ochs led the early laps with Homestead's Kodi Mullins in second. Martin of Carroll ran third but then moved to the front on the third lap. The front pack was down to five at the mile, including Martin, Ochs, Mullins, Canterbury's Jacob Phillips, and Alex Stoltie of Garrett.
   Although Martin held the lead from then on and went on to win  in 9:31.37, runners two through five traded places. Phillips dropped from second to fifth and Stoltie moved into fourth and then into second place on the last lap. He finished in 9:37. Ochs and Mullins jockeyed in third and fourth before Ochs finally pulled ahead over the final 100 meters.
   "I just didn't have enough at the end," said Mullins. "I tried." (Listen here to comments from Kodi Mullins).
   Ochs finished in 9:39 and Mullins in 9:40.
Knopp wins 3200m, DeSimone wins 1600m and 800m...
MAY 26 - Sage Knopp of Central Noble led throughout seven and a half laps in the 3200m run at the girls regional at Northrop High School Tuesday night until Kaylee McClanahan of Carroll surged ahead on the final turn. Knopp regained the lead down the home stretch and won in 11:20, collapsing on the track afterwards. McClanahan finished second only one second behind.
   "I trust my kick, but it was a lot harder than I thought," Knopp said (AUDIO INTERVIEW).
   Autumn Beachy of DeKalb was the the third state qualifier in 11:23 and Molly King of Huntington North was fourth in 11:36.
   Knopp also ran the 1600m run earlier but decided to not push the pace and was not among the leaders.
   Kate DeSimone easily won the 1600m with a time of 5:01, eight second aheads of Annie Shank of Bishop Luers. Samantha Ginther of Carroll was third in 5:09.
   Katherine Wilhelm, winner of the Huntington sectional 1600m, led through much of the race but ended up fourth in 5:11. Wilhelm's disappointment of not placing in the top three and missing the state qualifying standard by three seconds brought her to tears.
   DeSimone also won the 800m run in 2:19, followed by Jessica Brewer of Bellmont, their only regional qualifier, in 2:22 and Ginther in 2:23. Lauren Borchelt of Concordia was fourth.
   In the first race of the evening, Carroll won the 4x800m relay in 9:34 with Concordia second in 9:37 and Northrop third in 9:42.
Casey Shafer wins Three Rivers Running Company 12K --- COMPLETE RESULTS
Great photo gallery from the TRRC 12K --- HERE
Bird and Bussard 5th and 6th in Michigan half-marathon...
MAY 23 - Sam Bird, 19, back in Columbia City for summer break, traveled to Traverse City, Michigan over the Memorial Day Weekend to compete in the annual Bayshore Half-Marathon. The University of Kansas sophomore placed fifth overall out of 1,322 finishers with an official time of 1:14:39. Bird's time, however, didn't take into account a bathroom break at the 9-mile mark where he dropped from third to seventh.
   "I lost about a minute and a half with that," he said.
   Bird caught one runner over the last three miles and then overtook Elkhart's Dave Bussard on the track over the last tenth.
   Bussard, 49, finished in 1:14:44 and was the top masters winner. He was third overall last year in 1:15:11.
   Chris White of Granger was 12th in 1:19:35.
   Complete results can be found at (http://results.active.com/pages/searchform.jsp?rsID=78602).   
Carroll dominates distance events at North Side sectional...
MAY 21 - Carroll senior Robby Kleber opened a 5-meter lead in the first turn, a 15-meter gap in the second turn, and simply ran away from Ethan Wappes of Snider and the rest of the pack in 1600m at the North Side sectional Thursday night.
   His first lap split was 1:01, then 2:09, and 3:12 at 1200m, putting him on pace to break the meet record of 4:18.53 set in 2004 by Northrop's Brennon Plotner.
   But with an air temperature over 80 degrees and a slight headwind on the backstretch, Kleber's winning time of 4:18.76 missed the record by only 0.23 seconds. His early pace may have also cost him
   "I kind of got excited and went out a little too hard," Kleber said (Listen to audio).
   Wappes was second in 4:29. Michael Nussa of Carroll was third in 4:31 and Phillip Gase of Dwenger was fourth in 4:37.
   Kleber used a different strategy in 800m and waited until the end to pull away from Christopher Christoll of Snider and won in 1:59.  Chistoff finished in 2:00. Scott McKaig of Carroll, a soccer player and brother of former state running star Alissa McKaig, was third in 2:01.
   "I usually run 400s so I know I have the speed but I'm just learning how to race the 800. I've only run it once before this year," McKaig said (Listen to audio).
   In the 3200m run, no one was close to Carroll sophomore James Martin.
   With his teammates calling out "Jimmy" as he ran by, Martin went through the first lap in 1:08 and had a 20 meter lead on Andrew Eckrich of Bishop Dwenger, Mac Neukam of North Side, and Bisrat Desta of Snider.
   Neukam took over second place midway through the race before Eckrich regained the chase pack lead in the sixth lap.
   "At the SAC, Neukam wouldn't let me take the lead, so I couldn't settle for that," he said.
   Martin won in 9:33, well off the record of 9:11 set last year by Andy Bayer of Leo, but 22 seconds ahead of Eckrich. Neukam was third in 9:59 and Desta fourth in 10:02. Senior Travis Myers of North Side, with a time of 10:05, was fifth.
   In the first race of the evening, Austin Kilmer of Carroll outsprinted Snider's Isaiah Ordaz to take over the lead in the first leg of the 4x800m. With Nick Card, Nussa, and Martin running the anchor leg, the Chargers set a new school record and won in 7:59.