By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – For the first half of the race, Bedford North Lawrence standout Paige Voigtschild allowed her pursuers to remain close. In automobile terms, they were drafting, letting the leader do all the wind cutting. Their plan was to engineer a late pass and churn to a victory.
Good idea, until Voigtschild hit the accelerator. From that point, all they saw was the back of her florescent green spikes.
Leaving her challengers in her dust trail, Voigtschild pulled away to the individual title during the Scott Hiles Invitational on Monday afternoon. She also set the pace for her teammates as the Stars won the team title in the annual event named for a former BNL coach.
Voigtschild crossed the line first in 20:19.10, and BNL claimed the team crown with 23 points. The field included eight schools in the girls event, although only three had enough runners for a team score. Eastern Greene was second with 36 points, while Linton totaled 71.
In the boys event, BNL was fourth with 83 points, while Eastern Greene (48) edged Orleans (58) for the top spot.
Voigtschild was trailed by Eastern’s Juniper Crane and White River Valley’s Kate Linneweber until the first section of the second lap on the twisting BNL course.
“I just took off, and they couldn’t stay with me,” she said. “I thought I could lose them toward the end.”
BNL dominated the top 10. Claire Voigtschild followed her sister to the line, taking fourth overall in 22:22.29. Her race was a totally different view as she ran alone, just out of view from the leaders and just ahead of the next pack.
“It’s a lot different than the big meets,” Claire said. “It’s one of the hilliest courses we run.”
BNL’s Madison Chandler was fifth in 23:09.19, and Gracie Simmerman was sixth in 23:54.23.
“I’m proud of the girls,” BNL coach Amy Greenan said. “They ran tough. They had not ran an afternoon race this year, so we were cautiously optimistic.
“Paige ran really smart, She did just what we practice, run out in control and start racing toward the end. Our mid-pack looked really good. I’m really happy for them.“
In the boys race, BNL’s Eli McFarland started slowly, then exploded toward the front. He was lingering in 20th place early in the race, then started passing competitors in rapid succession. He roared from the pack to finish third in 18:48.98.
”We’ve been working on being more controlled in the first part of the race,” BNL coach Nick Boyd said. “There are different ways to attack it. He did a nice job of responding to training, to how we would like to run.”
”I wasn’t conserving anything,” McFarland said. “I just didn’t want kids to beat me. I thought to myself, ‘Do I want to be behind them?’ That answer was no. So I just took off. It was all guts after that. I pushed hard.
“We’re always taught to not push hard at the beginning, gradually work into it. I usually don’t do that very well. So after the first attacking point, I just took off.”
Other BNL contributors included Hayden Rich (ninth in 19:49.62) and Clayton Schaefer (22nd in 21:31.73).
Mitchell finished third in the team race, with Reece Grissom crossing in sixth in 19:18.99.
BNL will compete in the Dennis Bays Invitational at Angel Mounds (site of the IHSAA regional) on Saturday.
SCOTT HILES INVITATIONAL
