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Harrison, Johnson claim first-ever Stuart Bennett Invitational crowns
Throughout the school day on Wednesday, Northview’s Hannah Harrison and Camden Johnson had their minds on the inaugural Stuart Bennett Invitational held at LaVern Gibson Championship Course later that evening.
The pair were determined to do whatever it took to win their respective races in honor of Bennett, a runner each of them hold in high regard.
And that’s exactly what they did.
Harrison won the girls race with a time of 20:55 and Johnson followed it up by winning the boys race with a time of 16:54.
Each of the Northview upperclassmen were overcome with emotion when speaking about what becoming the first-ever Stuart Bennett Invitational individual champions meant to them.
“I was super determined to do this,” said Harrison. “I knew I had the potential to come out here and win, but then I was like, ‘I just need to come out here and do this for Stu.’ It meant so much for me and Camden to both come out here and win it. It just means so much that it was both of us that won.”
“This has been on my heart lately. I really wanted to get this one for him. I thought it was really cool that they honored him in this way, and I didn’t think there was any better way for me to honor him than to win it tonight,” said Johnson.
Harrison and Johnson used completely different races to cross the finish line before the rest of the field on Wednesday. Harrison led from start to finish and felt comfortable with the pace that she was running the entire way while Johnson had to fight through the initial pack before passing – and then holding off – Terre Haute South’s Aiden Miller.
“I knew that if I didn’t get out there, I was going to fall behind, so I just got out and stayed consistent,” explained Harrison. “I was just comfortable the whole time. I wasn’t hurting or anything. I knew I could go faster but I was like, ‘There’s no point. I’m just going to stay comfortable and not do anything crazy.’ I was hitting all of my paces pretty well, so when I hit the fourth one, I was like, ‘I’m just going to have fun with it the rest of the way.’”
“Coach Grounds told us not to go out as hard as we typically do and to pace ourselves. He wanted us to be able to have a kick at the end of the race. It allowed me to go race with some guys,” Johnson expounded.
It created the most fitting way for the inaugural Stuart Bennett Invitational to go, said Northview cross country head coaches Jeff Walker and James Grounds.
“To have Northview kids win the first-ever Stuart Bennett Invitational, it just made sense,” said Walker. “Plus, in cross country, you don’t get the chance to finish first all of the time, especially with our schedule. So, when you get the chance to do it, you take it.”
“It’s extremely cool for Camden to win this,” said Grounds. “Of course, there’s always going to be parallels between runners, but Camden came onto a team that was pretty well established, just like Stu did. He wasn’t a top guy as a freshman, but he was a varsity guy from the start. And also kind of like Stu, by the time they’re juniors, they’re both chasing down the top guys in the areas and moving up the state ranks. It’s really cool because Camden has definitely earned this.”
Northview’s boys team, which saw Connor Propst, who finished fifth with a time of 17:39, and Daniel Russell, who finished ninth with a time of 18:01, earn top-10 placements, finished second in the team standings behind only Terre Haute South. Grounds said that while Wednesday’s meet gave the Knights an idea of where they currently sit in the sectional pecking order with a few weeks left to go in the regular season, they were also able to implement a different type of strategy that should help them down the road.
“We definitely came into it with a different approach. I’ve been trying to get the kids to be a little bit more conservative. We’re not going to run ourselves into the ground. We’d rather have the guys that we know we can beat have a nice, big lead and then work on chasing throughout the meet – a skill that we don’t get to work on very often because of our schedule – so this was very good,” said Grounds. “I think this is something that Stu would’ve eaten up. He would have loved hearing, ‘Hey, here’s the plan. This is what we should do today.’ He would’ve loved that.”
Northview’s girls team, which saw two runners – Harrison and Josie Lynch, who finished second with a time of 21:30 – finish in the top two and four runners – Harrison, Lynch, Leah Nevill, who finished eighth with a time of 23:08, and Aubrey Miller, who finished ninth with a time of 23:17 – in top 10, was crowned as the inaugural Stuart Bennett Invitational champions, an accomplishment Harrison and Walker were immensely proud of.
“They executed the plan. We gave them some paces to run the first few Ks in. Then, we just told them to race. They seemed to respond pretty well,” said Walker.
“It’s been a really weird year without Gnister [Grant] and Ellia [Hayes], so this is a huge sectional uplifter. Our team is so capable, so coming out here and doing this against Terre Haute North and Terre Haute South in a sectional preview was huge,” said Harrison. “Winning this for our confidence and winning it for Stu, this was just amazing.”
But while the competition was among the top parts of Wednesday’s meet, honoring the life Bennett, a Northview cross country alum, and the love for running he had was the focal point of it all for the Knights. It’s something they strive to do every day they’re on the course and will continue to do so moving forward.
“It was just good for the upperclassmen on the team that got to run with him when they were younger. They remember what kind of a runner he was and what kind of a kid he was. It also gave us a chance for the freshmen and sophomores that didn’t know him – they knew the name, but didn’t know the person – to introduce them to him and give them a reason to run hard too,” said Walker.
Stuart Bennett Invitational boys results
Team scores – Terre Haute South 22, Northview 35, Clay City 85, Terre Haute North N/S
Northview (35) – Camden Johnson 16:54, Connor Propst 17:39, Daniel Russell 18:01, Seth Hendricks 18:19, Will Harms 18:28, Noah Minett 18:43, Devin Jones 18:56, Hadley McPike 19:26, Alden Shepherd 19:28, Jonah Jabbour 19:43, Jacob Dalton 20:09, Nolan Heiliger 20:10, Maxx McCullough 20:36, Addison Shepherd 21:30, Maddox Penrod 22:12
Stuart Bennett Invitational girls results
Team scores – Northview 33, Terre Haute South 37, Terre Haute North 51, Clay City 119
Northview (33) – Hannah Harrison 20:55, Josie Lynch 21:50, Leah Nevill 23:08, Aubrey Miller 23:17, Cora Frederick 23:51, Addison Nolte 25:44, Kaleigh Alexander 27:22