Penn High School Cross Country: Kingsmen Boys & Girls dominate Sectional
Penn Boys and Girls Cross Country teams had tremendous showings at Sectionals, winning both races.
The girls’ team raced first, obliterating the competition with five scoring runners in the top seven. Shreya Nayee and Lila Van Hoveln took the top two spots, with times of 18:19 and 18:29 respectively. This was over a full minute ahead of any competition. Penn also took third, sixth, and seventh place with Calihan Lederer, Sami Pentelow, and Erica Ramirez. They had times of 19:45, 20:25, and 20:28 respectively. They finished with a team score of 19, beating New Prairie with a score of 69 and South Bend John Adams with a score of 95.
Penn boys also had a formidable performance, finishing all seven racers in the top 13 spots, four of the seven racers being sophomores. Senior Brody Lederer outran sophomore Jacob Sullivan in the last 200 meters to win third place with a time of 16:14. Sullivan finished fourth just one second behind, with a phenomenal time of 16:15. Michael Wassner finished seventh with a time of 16:34, while Ethan Schafer, Kingston Pumel, and Nate Hannah built a strong pack to finish ninth, 10th, and 11th with times of 16:39, 16:43, and 16:49 respectively. Sophomore Abhijay Masetty rounded them out with a 13th-place finish and a time of 16:54. The Kingsmen finished with a team score of 33, beating LaPorte’s 72 points and New Prairie’s 111 points.
Both teams race back at New Prairie at regionals next Saturday.