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Eels win first Clay City Invitational championship since 2015
It had been quite awhile since Clay City’s boys cross country team defended their home turf and won the Clay City Invitational.
How long? Clay City head coach Cole Schroer pondered that question Tuesday evening but wasn’t entirely sure of the answer.
Schroer won’t have to think too hard about it the next time he’s asked as the Eels brought home the team championship for the first time since 2015 thanks in part to a contingent of their runners crossing the finish line in a large pack, a strength the program has leaned on throughout the fall.
“It’s been a while since we’ve won our own invitational. That’s something we’ve talked about. We thought it was time for us to do that and take care of business,” said Schroer. “We really haven’t performed well in this race here. It’s always hot and the course is difficult, so it can be hard to run well here, but they ran well today.”
Clay City accomplished one of its season-long goals of claiming the program’s host invitational in the sweltering mid-September heat, another area of strength for this year’s group, that returned for a multi-day stay after running in much cooler temperatures over the weekend at the Terre Haute Savings Bank State Preview.
“We’re acclimated to the heat. We train in the heat. Some people handle it better than others. Some people can give a better effort in the heat. Really, it was about how well they hydrated yesterday,” said Schroer. “We believe that if you take care of yourself and are ready to go, you can race well in the heat.”
Jayden Hickenbotham led the way, finishing third overall by posting a personal best time of 17:35. It’s the second straight year the senior, who was celebrated before the meet alongside the rest of the senior class, placed in the invitational’s top three. And while Schroer said he was certain Hickenbotham wanted to be the individual champion, the longtime head coach wanted to make sure his senior leader was proud of his final race on the Clay City course.
“I was really encouraged by the way he finished,” said Schroer of Hickenbotham. “The South Putnam runner in front of him [Gabriel Feltner] is really good, but Jayden wasn’t that far behind him and then he had to out-run the Shakamak kid [Miller Leo], so he should be really proud of getting second.”
Behind Hickenbotham was Brady Hauer (6th with a time of 18:13), Mason Lucas (7th with a time of 18:24), Luke Swearingen (8th with a time of 18:28), Luke Laswell (10th with a time of 18:36), Brayden Wiram (13th with a time of 19:30), Grady Paddock (15th with a time of 19:36) and Alex Edwards (16th with a time of 19:46), all of whom finished in the meet’s top 16 to secure the team title for the Eels.
“What has been awesome is seeing our sixth, seventh and eighth guys are starting to get closer to that group,” Schroer said. “It’s really encouraging to see that because, really, that’s our strength. We’ve got one through five or six that seem to always be right there.”
The Lady Eels were dealt a tough blow in their race as sophomore Ashley Martinez-Morales, who has been the program’s top runner the last two years, rolled her ankle shortly after beginning her second – and final – lap of the course.
Martinez-Morales was in second place behind Linton’s Wremee Leigh at the time, but was forced to remove herself from the race due to the pain she was in. Clay City girls head coach Melanie Laswell said they’ll slow play Martinez-Morales’ training over the next week, putting Saturday’s Washington Invitational in jeopardy.
“We were hoping to be around second, team-wise, but when Ashley had to drop out, that hurt our chances,” said Laswell. “It sounded like a rolled ankle that happened after the first mile. I’ll probably put her on the bike for the next couple of days this week and see how it is. We have the Washington Invite on Saturday, and that’s a pretty quick course so I’m sure she wants to see how she can do on it. If she can run it, that would be great, but if we need to hold her out of that meet, we will.”
Despite seeing the team’s pole setter leave the race early, Clay City didn’t give up hope and continued to churn towards finishing as high as possible. That resulted in freshmen Anna Duckwall and Shelby Hofmann cracking the top 15, placing ninth and 15th with respective times of 25:35 and 27:03 as the pair of running newcomers continue to see consistent improvements this fall.
“They’ve been really good, especially since Anna and Shelby had never run cross country before,” said Laswell. “They just decided to try it and now they’re really coming along. It’s a big adjustment but they’ve figured that out and are sticking with it and are enjoying it.”
Behind Duckwall and Hofmann included Sydney Lowdermilk (17th), Lydia Grant (18th), Tessa Stagg (21st), Millie Withers (22nd), Olivia Shidler (23rd), Jenna Hofmann (27th) and Reagan Tucker (33rd).