Batesville High School

The Batesville High School cross country teams travelled to Indianapolis for the Ben Davis High School Invitational. The Bulldogs had 10 personal bests for the day, many season bests, an individual champion, an individual runner up, a team championship and a team runner up. The varsity boys stepped up to the line first with 23 other teams and almost 180 runners. The Bulldogs were led by senior Ethan Rahschulte who ran a personal best of 17:49, which placed him 46th overall. He was followed closely by teammate Levi Essick, also running a personal best (17:57) and placing 55th. Others placing in the top 7 for the Bulldogs were Cash Myers (78th), Ryan Benz (112th), followed by Brody Gibson (117th), Jaden Basler (128th) and Tripp Hertel (155th). Batesville tied for 11th with Southport both with 356 points, but their 6th runner placed one spot in front of the Bulldogs, so they dropped to 12th. Ben Davis was the overall champion with 56 points, with Center Grove in 2nd (104), Westfield, 3rd (127), Brebuef Jesuit, 4th (153) and finishing out the top 5 was Mooresville with 157. The varsity girls stepped up to the line next with 15 other teams and just over 100 individuals in their race. The girls also ran tough with their top 3 runners coming through in personal best times and all 5 scoring spots placing in the top 20. Having very strong finishes down the last stretch of the race and crossing the finish line with a 1-2 punch and personal best time were freshman Ava Wade (1st) at 19:31 and sophomore Jayla Bedel (2nd) at 19:34. Sam Adams came in 9th at 20:38. Francesca Myer placed 16th and Paige Allgeier was 19th with Caitlin Raver coming in 21st, just missing the top 20 and finishing out the varsity seven was Maycee Holtkamp in 30th. With these strong finishes, the Bulldogs were named the champions of the Ben Davis Invitational with 44 points. North Central came in 2nd at 76 points, followed by Herron in 3rd with 83, just beating Southport at 87 and Ben Davis finished out the top 5 with 139 points. The boys JV was next and came in 11th with Gage Sullivan leading the way in 99th position. The final race of the morning was the girls JV, who had all 5 of their scoring runners place in the top 20 and receive awards, giving them a 2nd place finish to North Central 18 points to 41. Leading the way for the Bulldogs and running a personal best time was Jade Martin in 3rd place. Aubrey Weberding, Reillee Adams and Audrey Dieckmann came in 7th-9th respectively, with Gabi Alonzo finishing out the scoring 7, placing 20th.