Summary of the Valley Kick Off 2024

Many of Indiana's top names are now competing at the next level, and new faces are making their way forward, creating new storylines. The Varsity Division and Junior Varsity Division races took place in the annual Kick-off in the valley Meeting with many notable team and individual performances. Below are summaries from both varsity divisions.

Girls’ Varsity Division

There will also be a new champion in both varsity races, both of whom graduated last spring. Last year's winner Joey Rastrelli is now competing for IU Bloomington This meant that the title was still up for grabs, especially since 8 of last year's top 10 finishers were all seniors.

Several girls took up the challenge, as five girls reached the 4 km mark within one second of each other, with 3-4 more within striking distance. On the home stretch it looked like Sadie Foley would take the win and lead the strong group of Greyhounds runners. But less than 200 m from the finish Macey Thompson decided that she would not be beaten today and gradually caught up before overtaking Sadie about 75 m from the finish, taking the win and helping Central Lake to second team place with 69 points.

Both runners narrowly missed the podium in their respective track and field events last spring. Saddie ran 4:59 to place 12th in the 1600m and Macey ran 2:15 to place 13th in the 800m. This would be a HUGE cross country breakthrough for Macey as her personal best from last year was 20:23 and she placed 200th at the state championships. That means she is 1:25 off her peak from last fall and was able to beat an all-state runner who placed 18th at the cross country championships last season. This season should be exciting as Macey will be looking to make a splash.

Sadie would take second place in the individual scoring, which would help further lower Carmel's dominant team score, where they won with 37 points against the 40 schools that scored for the girls. The Greyhounds had their entire scoring lineup placed in the top 11 and consisted of Larkin Taylor (fifth), Olivia Mundt (9.), Annabel Pollert (10.) and Margo Hall (11.). The team has high hopes for a state title in the fall and started the season in second place in the MileSplit Indiana Girls Preseason Rankings.

Individually, Dakota Moore would take third place and Lexi Kollbaumwho had led for most of the race until the 3600 meter mark, would reach 4th place. North-Central would complete the top 3 in the team ranking with 131 points, led by Kaelina Matthews.

Boys Varsity Division

In the last two years we have seen Will Conway dominate this meeting and beat notable names with convincing wins in 2022 and 2023. Conway has graduated and will compete for State of Oklahoma After the coaching change in Tennessee, a new champion would be crowned this year.

The race would feature a battle between two up-and-coming seniors who also happened to be the two best returning athletes in the competition. Liam Bauschke would take second place last year with Shane Conroy He finished 4th in 2023. Both returned later that season and finished on the podium at the XC State Championships. They met again last spring at the State Championships in the 3200m, where Shane finished 6th in 9:02 while Liam narrowly missed the podium in 9:13.

The duo were able to pull away from the rest of the field at the two-mile mark before Shane began to close the gap on Liam at the 4k mark. The gap slowly widened over the final kilometer before Shane was the only runner to break the opening meet's 16-minute mark in the home straight, clocking 15:52.7, while Liam narrowly missed out on that with a 16:00.2 to take second for the second consecutive time. Shane's winning performance would help Portage and ranked eighth among the 39 schools that scored points in the boys' category.

Evansville FJ Reitz had a solid start to the season, winning the meet with a total of 79 points. The Panthers placed in the top 27 of the race five times and had depth with six players in the top 36. Senior MichaelJackson would take the lead with a strong third place in 16:13.9. Other points collectors for the team would be Carter Decorate (10.), Brice Johnson (20.), Will Dierlam (22.) and Sawyer Mossberger (27.). The team would be ranked 6th in the MileSplit Indiana Boys Preseason Rankings and would beat #1 Bloomington North by 96 points.

Bloomington Northbut seemed to be missing Jack Holden who set the fourth fastest time of the returning drivers for the team last fall. With Jack in the lineup, it would have been a very close battle for the team title. Mount Vernon would finish third with 116 points, led by Ahmed Saleh.