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Viking harriers end season with 14th at semi-state

Huntington North sophomore Austin Lange (left) competes Saturday, Oct. 20, at the New Haven Cross Country Semi-State at The Plex, in Fort Wayne. Lange finished fifth for the Vikings, who placed 14th as a team.
Huntington North sophomore Austin Lange (left) competes Saturday, Oct. 20, at the New Haven Cross Country Semi-State at The Plex, in Fort Wayne. Lange finished fifth for the Vikings, who placed 14th as a team. Photo by Steve Clark.

Despite a strong individual performance by senior Cordell Lewis, the season came to an end for the Huntington North High School boys' cross country team at the New Haven Cross Country Semi-State at The Plex, in Fort Wayne, on Saturday, Oct. 20, as it finished 14th out of 20 teams with a score of 333.

Lewis finished 17th overall and 11th among team scorers in 16:28.08, narrowly missing out on a trip to state with the top 15 individuals.

The next Viking runner to cross the finish line was senior Jacob Ambriole, who did so in 17:30.74, for 74th place. Sophomore Matt DeWitt was next, finishing in 17:41.58 for 91st place, with junior Charlie Mettler on his heels, who finished in 17:42.19 for 92nd. Sophomore Austin Lange took 121st place in 18:05.14 to round out the scoring for the Vikings.

Senior Jacob Miller posted a time of 18:24.76 for 133rd place and sophomore Cam DeWitt finished in 18:34.50 for 137th to complete the team.

Carroll won the meet with a score of 40 points, placing four runners in the top 10. Homestead finished second with 111 points, Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger was third with 129, Northridge was fourth with 164, Goshen took fifth with 175 and Mishawaka grabbed the sixth and final state-qualifying spot with 186 points.

Zachery Panning, of Fort Wayne Concordia, was the meet's individual champion, finishing in 15:37.35 to beat runner-up Nicholas Lagemann of Prairie Heights by almost 1.5 seconds. Both advanced to state as individuals, along withJoel Hartman of Elkhart Christian, third place; Caleb Augustus of Northfield, fifth place; Mark Beckman of DeKalb, sixth place; Ryan Smith of Central Noble, seventh place; Luke Runyan of John Glenn, ninth place; Joshua Neideck of Eastbrook, 11th place; and Brandon Arnold of West Noble, 12th place.

Huntington North loses 10 members of its team to graduation.