The Valparaiso High School boys cross country team was invited to the Culver Academies Cross Country Invitational. Schools from as far away as Michigan and Ohio were invited to run. The Culver Invitational is a spectacular event with a stampede of runners taking off and vying for the first place position. It's an awesome sight with hundreds of runners running in each race.
Races began as early as 8am. The first race for VHS was the boys freshman-sophomore race, consisting of seven top freshman and sophomore runners from each school.
Valparaiso Frosh/Soph as a team, placed 4th out of 29 participating schools. The top 5 schools were: 1 Warsaw 60 points, 2 Brebeuf Jesuit 64, 3 Carmel 84, 4 Valparaiso 121, 5 Mason 146.
Sophomore Kevin Hickey placed 3rd overall with a time of 16:38.1. Hickey has been having an excellent season this year. Also in the top 30 were sophomore Corey Alfredson (13) with a time of 16:57.5 and sophomore Andrew Jankowski (26) with a time of 17:11.4. The top 30 runners in each race were presented with medals.
Also running Frosh/Soph:
35 Drew Finley 17:29.8
47 Kevin Mangel 17:43.1
75 Connor Divine 18:12.4
76 Jacob Chapman 18:13.8
Varsity girls were the next race of the day with Katelyn DeVries placing 8th with over 200 participants in the race. DeVries time was 18:41.1.
Varsity girls:
8 Katelyn DeVries 18:41.1
73 Tiffany Fortney 20:07.1
81 Tricia Joll 20:15
92 Lauren Bigger 20:24.1
94 Michaela Gazdich 20:24.7
137 Marilee Tullis 20:59.6
Valparaiso varsity girls team placed 14th with 348 points, out of 33 participating schools.
Ari Coulopoulos, running for the boys varsity team, did an amazing job taking the lead along with Peyton Reed. Coulopoulos placed 5th, breaking 16 minutes with a time of 15:49.5 and was followed by Reed who placed 11th with a time of 15:57.3. Coulopoulos and Reed ran with just over a 5-minute-mile pace.
Also running varsity:
66 Landon Davison 16:48.5
76 Pat Dalton 16:54.8
85 Taylor Bisacchi 17:00.8
160 Xavier Reed 17:40
200 Murry Banks 18:11
Valparaiso boys varsity placed 6th as a team with 236 points. The top 5 schools were: 1 Carmel 92, 2 Columbus North 100, 3 Lawrence Central 205, 4 Mishawaka 208, 5 Zionsville.
Coach Crague, of the boys team said, "We will face Mishawaka, and Carmel and others in the top 5 at state, so we know where we need to be."
The state meet isn't too far off, but first they will run the D.A.C. Duneland Athletic Conference meet at Lake Central High School in St. John starting at 11am on Saturday, October 1.
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