CGA senior
Alex Banfich pulls away from Penn's Valerie Burns (235) and Valparaiso's
Megan Ranegar (260)
during the state cross country meet Saturday. Banfich became only the
second girl
in IHSAA history to win three straight titles. photo by Jan Garrison
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Banfich's
victory surprises no one
TIM CREASON
Tribune Correspondent
TERRE HAUTE -- At least somebody tried to make it a race.
Penn sophomore Valerie Burns, to be specific. She led the first mile of
the girls state cross country finals Saturday at the Wabash Valley Sports
Center in Terre Haute.
But, down deep, Burns knew who was coming. Everyone did.
It happened at the 2,000-meter mark. Culver Girls Academy senior Alex
Banfich swept past and surged to her third consecutive individual girls
state championship.
Once again, when Banfich took off, nobody could stay with her. Once again,
she won with ridiculous ease, this time by almost 17 seconds.
Her winning time - 18:21.8 for 5,000 meters (3.1 miles) - now stands as
the IHSAA state meet record, for the simple fact this is the first year
girls have run 5K in Indiana.
It was nowhere near her best time. A soggy course, ankle-deep mud in spots
and gusting winds guaranteed that nobody would run real fast.
"I was really hoping for 17:30 today, but there was no way under
these conditions," said Banfich. "That's OK, I'm excited. With a
no-class system in Indiana, I know I'm getting to run against the best
runners in the state. It's an honor to win it."
Counting the three state championships she has earned in track, Banfich, a
Plymouth native, has now captured a total of six IHSAA gold medals. If she
wins two more state titles -- a distinct possibility -- she will become
the most-decorated high school distance runner in Indiana history, boy or
girl.
But that can't happen until next spring. Before then, she has several
national races on her schedule, not to mention a trip to the Mideast Meet
of Champions as a member of the Indiana All-Star team.
Oh, and she'll be on the CGA swim team this winter.
"Yeah, I stay busy," she laughed.
Apparently Banfich was in a hurry to get the cross country season over, as
she surged several times after taking the lead at 2K and opened a margin
of almost 200 meters.
To her credit, Valparaiso's Megan Ranegar finished hard and cut the
distance at the end. She took runnerup honors in 18:38.2.
As for Burns, she eventually finished 10th, earning All-State recognition
and an IHSAA award medal with an 18:59.7 clocking.
It was a frustrating end of the season for the talented Penn newcomer.
"I wanted to finish second," said Burns. "I knew nobody was
going to beat Alex (Banfich), but I feel I ran fast enough this year to be
second.
"I'm tired, just drained," said Burns. "The truth is that I
peaked at the New Haven Classic (in September). I ran a lot of hard miles
over the summer and I peaked way too early. Next year, I have to back it
off some."
For the third year in a row, No. 1-ranked Westfield claimed the girls
state team title, scoring 81 to turn back Lake Central (114) and Fort
Wayne Carroll (119).
Northridge placed ninth at 264. Culver Girls Academy was 18th and Goshen
19th.
Hannah Miller clocked 19:35.8 and led the Raiders with a 30th place
finish. Karissa Cominator took 36th and Hayley Keil 81st.
Northridge coach Ryan McClane was perplexed afterwards.
"The conditions weren't good. The girls said their legs felt like
spaghetti out there," said McClane. "But the conditions were the
same for everybody. We needed to run great to finish in the top five and
we ran good, but not great.
"I don't know, after the Culver Invitational, I thought we could be a
(top five) team," said McClane. "We just never had everybody run
their best race on the same day."
Rachel Hollinger-Janzen finished 66th to lead Goshen, finishing seven
seconds behind Riley's Beth Werge (58th). Michigan City junior MaryKate
Mellen was 33rd and Plymouth's Morgan Hite placed 42nd.
Team scores: Westfield 81, Lake Central 114, Carroll (Fort Wayne) 119,
Carmel 146, Bloomington North 205, Indianapolis Bishop Chatard 210,
Columbus North 258, West Lafayette 261, Northridge 264, Valparaiso 278,
Indianapolis Cathedral 300, Center Grove 312, DeKalb 320, Munster 372,
Bloomington South 376, West Noble 399, Fort Wayne Concordia 444, Culver
Girls Academy 452, Goshen 457, Chesterton 20, Terre Haute North 509, New
Albany 545, Heritage Hills 558, Madison 560.
Top 25 finishers: 1, Alex Banfich (Culver Girls Academy) 18:21.8 (MEET
RECORD). 2, Megan Ranegar (Valparaiso) 18:38.2. 3, Lorna Whaley (Avon)
18:46.2. 4, Margaret Bingham (Westfield) 18:48.0. 5, Brianna Johnson
(Carroll-FW) 18:48.1. 6, Sarah Terashima (Richmond) 18:53.0. 7, Lacey
Oeding (Jasper) 18:54.7. 8, Kaitlyn Love (Westfield) 18:57.2. 9, Chelsea
Blanchard (Carroll-FW) 18:57.3. 10, Valerie Burns (Penn) 18:59.7. 11,
Sarah Higgens (Center Grove) 19:03.6. 12, Autumn Beachy (DeKalb) 19:06.8.
13, Rachel Zajac (Lake Central) 19:09.4. 14, Lacey Orth (Evansville North)
19:12.1. 15, Siri Retrum (Columbus North) 19:19.1. 16, Jordan Chester
(Boone Grove) 19:20.2. 17, Molly Hirt (Bloomington No) 19:20.2. 18, Carly
Sobolewski (Indianapolis Chatard) 19:20.7. 19, Allison Hochstetler
(Bethany Christian) 19:21.4. 20, Linsey Daluga (West Lafayette) 19:21.6.
21, Kaisa Goodman (West Lafayette) 19:22.7. 22, Alexandra Daugherty
(Lawrence No) 19:23.5. 23, Waverly Neer (Westfield) 19:24.5. 24, Elissa
Mason (Indianapolis Roncalli) 19:26.9. 25, Megan Plenus (Lake Central)
19:27.5.
PENN FINISHERS: 10, Valerie Burns 18:59.7; 100, Sarah Hutchings 20:38.7.
RILEY FINISHER: 58, Beth Werge 20:09.5.
NORTHRIDGE FINISHERS: 30, Hannah Miller 19:35.8; 36, Karissa Cominator
19:42.7; 81, Hayley Keil 20:27.5; 92, Hanna Mercer 20:34.1; 117, Megan
Hammel 20:54.7; 124, Lisa Bond 21:00.3; 125, Emily Mercer 21:03.8.
CULVER GIRLS ACADEMY FINISHERS: 1, Alexandra Banfich 18:21.8; 126, Mary
Margaret Peter 21:04.9; 131, Kaye Sitterley 21:09.6; 141, Lauren Davis
21:26.1; 157, Kiley Trennepohl 21:46.2; 186, Kathryn Marr 22:47.7; 194,
Willow Smith 28:00.4.
GOSHEN FINISHERS: 66, Rachel Hollinger-Janzen 20:16.1; 107, Jillian
Zimmerman 20:41.7; 116, Desiree Maran 20:53.6; 136, Laura Sorg 21:20.3;
155, Karla Folker 21:42.3; 190, Kayla Hussey 22:59.1; 191, Laura
Gladfelter 23:19.2.
PLYMOUTH FINISHER: 42, Morgan Hite 19:54.8.
BETHANY CHRISTIAN FINISHER: 19, Ali Hochstetler 19:21.4.
MICHIGAN CITY FINISHER: 33, MaryKate Mellen 19:39.6.
MENTAL ATTITUDE AWARD: Alex Banfich (Culver Girls Academy).