By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – All alone, running against nothing but her thoughts, goals and the clock, Paige Voigtschild was the loneliest number that could ever be. If she had dared to look over her shoulder, she would have had difficulty spotting any pursuers.
Setting the pace from smooth start to runaway finish, Voigtschild glided to victory on her home course, and her teammates followed that blazed trail to a team triumph as Bedford North Lawrence claimed the girls title in the annual Scott Hiles Invitational on Monday afternoon.
With three finishers in the top five, the Stars won the race with 36 points. In the boys race, BNL’s pack mentality paid off with a second-place finish. Eastern Greene won that meet with 27 points while the Stars totaled 46 in the small field.
Voigtschild won her second straight race, and did so with little rest following Saturday’s victory in the Seymour Invitational. She cruised across the finish line in 19:53.20, almost 90 seconds clear of her sister Claire (a solid runner-up in 21:20.45) and almost three minutes ahead of someone in different team colors.
That’s impressive, because running alone is tough. No competition, no challengers to motivate. That will come later in bigger meets.
“When there is no one to push me, it’s hard to push myself,” Voigtschild said. “I was thinking ‘Just get up this hill’ and cruise down it. I want to place as well as I can, try to stay toward the top.”
“It is tough,” BNL coach Amy Greenan said. “She does a good job. We talked about pushing her a little bit harder at the beginning, to see what she had. We wanted her to run consistently and see what she had left. She really stuck with the plan.
“That’s a good time on this course, at this time of year, after a big race. We didn’t have much rest time.”
Following the senior sisters, BNL got younger in a hurry. Ashlynn York, a promising sophomore, was fifth overall in 23:35.00, while freshmen Maggie Minton (10th in 24:56.39) and Genevieve Walker (19th in 27:02.71) completed the team scoring. Their job now is to close the time gap.
”I think they will figure it out,” Greenan said.
In the boys race, BNL’s attacked with a polar-opposite approach, staying together and hunting down stragglers like wolves on the prowl. Eli McFarland finally broke away and chased down all but one competitor as he finished second overall in 18:24.97. Eastern Greene’s Aaron Hudson was the winner in 18:14.06.
“The plan was staying together for a certain distance,” McFarland said. “After that, it was whatever you could do, beat as many kids as I could. It is a boost to see people fall behind. It makes it hurt less.”
While seven programs were represented in the race, only three fielded full teams. Eastern won the meet by placing four in the top eight, while Orleans was third with 54 points.
BNL’s other scoring came from Hayden Rich (fifth in 18:55.87), Tate McFarland (sixth in 18:58.41), Jasper Baurichter (20th in 20:48.24) and Linkin Guthrie (22nd in 21:31.61).
“We’re trying to tighten the spread of our times,” BNL coach Nick Boyd said. “We see this as an opportunity to learn and improve, work on some things. See what can happen at the end. They did a good job of executing.”
”The only time that’s important right now is practice,” Eli McFarland said. “Time comes later. Right now, it’s becoming a team that works together, that has chemistry, and can race well.”
BNL will compete in Crawford County Invitational, the course that will be the new regional site, on Saturday.
SCOTT HILES INVITATIONAL
