COLUMBUS – Paige Voigtschild finished 10th in a crowded field competing in the annual Rick Weinheimer Invitational during girls high school cross country action on Saturday.
The Stars finished 14th in the AA division with 384 points. Westfield won the meet with 68 points while Floyd Central was second with 86 among the 23 teams in that division. The entire field included 39 teams and 300 runners.
Voigtschild crossed the line in 19:00.4, dropping 16 seconds off her season best. Milford’s Elle Campbell was the individual winner in 18:17.6. Claire Voigtschild was 20th in 19:27.0, a personal record by 49 seconds.
“Claire is the big story today,” BNL coach Any Greenan said. “This is a huge race. If you can focus on moving up, passing more people than pass you, you’re going to do pretty well. There’s very little alone time to zone out.”
Maggie Minton (22:43.4), Ashlynn York (23:04.1) and Genevieve Walker (26:34.1) completed the scoring for the Stars.
”Maggie had a super run,” Greenan said. “She’s working hard in practice and learning to switch gears and race. We had another great meet. It’s fun watching them find their confidence and just go for it. They’re making a lot of progress.”
In the boys meet, because of a timing error, BNL’s team total was omitted and the times of the team’s top runners failed to register.
Columbus North won the division with 63 points while Yorktown was second among 25 teams with 127.
”Eli (McFarland) and Hayden (Rich) had a nice start to their race and finished well,” BNL coach Nick Boyd said. “Overall, the team has a few people injured at the moment, so really our main goal is to get healthy, and keep working hard.”
Whiteland’s Colton Watson was the individual winner in 15:23.6.
BNL will compete in the Eagle Classic at Brown County on Sept. 12.
Rick Weinheimer Invitational
