Owls CC team places 24th at state

October 31, 2011 12:22 AM
TRIBUNE REPORTS

TERRE HAUTE — The Seymour boys cross country team’s solid run through the postseason ended with a 24th-place finish in Saturday’s state meet at the LaVern Gibson Cross Country Course at the Wabash Valley Sports Center in Terre Haute.

North Central senior Futsum Zeinasellassie became the third boy in history to win three straight cross country titles when he turned in a winning time of 14:48.

Seymour’s top finisher was Joe Trueblood, placing 80th in 16:40. The other four scorers for Seymour were Jack Tormoehlen, 145th in 17:21; Ben Franke, 159th in 17:34; Luke Tormoehlen, 161st in 17:35; and Ian Hensen, 164th in 17:38.

Owls coach Randy Fife said Trueblood tried to go to the front of the pack and was aiming for the school record and all-state (top 25), but it didn’t go as planned.

“The rest of the boys came in in a nice pack,” Fife said, as the No. 2 through No. 5 runners were separated by 17 seconds. “They just weren’t up far enough. They needed to be about 20 seconds faster.”

Zeinasellassie and the girls meet winner, Warsaw junior Ashley Erba, won their respective races in record time.

Zeinasellassie, who finished 44.1 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, had the fastest state finals time in the eight years the meet has been held at the Gibson course. Erba finished in 18:05, more than 13 seconds ahead of the runner-up.

Team-wise, the Columbus North boys won for the third straight year, tallying 77 points. Hamilton Southeastern was second in the 24-team field with 109 points. Carmel claimed the girls meet for the second straight year, scoring 43 points, while Columbus North was a distant second, scoring 140 points. Carmel’s five scoring runners finished in the top 20.

Seymour will lose five of its top seven runners to graduation.

“We didn’t run our best, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t try. It just means we didn’t have our best day,” Fife said. “It’s always good to run on the last day of the season, and if you get to the state finals, it’s all any team wants and you give your best and see what happens.”

Results: Cross Country State Finals At Terre Haute

Boys

Team scores: Columbus North 77, Hamilton Southeastern 109, Carmel 152, Mishawaka 155, Lawrence Central 179, North Harrison 192, Valparaiso 214, South Bend St. Joseph’s 216, Carroll (Fort Wayne) 243, Zionsville 268, Bloomington South 296, North Central (Indianapolis) 303, Bedford North Lawrence 356, Fort Wayne Snider 377, Warsaw 384, Crown Point 430, Whitko 469, Chesterton 479, LaPorte 492, Evansville North 506, Hobart 512, Terre Haute South 528, McCutcheon 562, Seymour 575

Winner: Futsum Zeinasellassie (NC) 14:48

Seymour: 80-Joe Trueblood 16:40, 145-Jack Tormoehlen 17:21, 159-Ben Franke 17:34, 161-Luke Tormoehlen 17:35, 164-Ian Hensen 17:38, 184-Ryan Emigh 18:08, 190-Raul Varela 18:25

Girls

Team scores: Carmel 43, Columbus North 140, Valparaiso 213, Fort Wayne Concordia 223, West Lafayette 239, Hamilton Southeastern 242, Carroll (Fort Wayne) 242, Westfield 245, Center Grove 250, Terre Haute North 266, Warsaw 282, Penn 290, Avon 307, Northridge 337, Eastern (Greentown) 351, Crown Point 419, Portage 436, Lake Central 436, Huntington North 451, Bloomington South 458, Evansville Memorial 474, Heritage Hills 549, Terre Haute South 588, New Albany 612

Winner: Ashley Erba (Warsaw) 18:05

Seniors leading Owl runners for last time

Seymour set to compete at Saturday's state meet

October 28, 2011 1:50 AM
By ZACH SPICER

Only 24 boys high school cross country teams were still practicing this week in preparation for Saturday’s state meet, and Seymour senior Luke Tormoehlen said it’s nice that the Owls were one of those teams.

“It’s been our goal since the camping trip (before the season) this year,” he said, “and we wanted to just go as our seniors went.”

The four other seniors, Joe Trueblood, Ben Franke, Raul Varela and Ryan Emigh, along with sophomores Jack Tormoehlen, Ian Hensen and Tyler Hatton will represent Seymour for the final time of the 2011 season at the biggest stage, the state meet at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course at the Wabash Valley Sports Center in Terre Haute.

The top six boys and girls teams from the Brown County, Carmel, New Haven and New Prairie semistates will be running in the state meet. The boys race will start at 1 p.m., followed by the girls meet.

At semistate, four of the top five Seymour runners had season-best times. Trueblood finished 10th in 15:50, Jack Tormoehlen and Luke Tormoehlen finished in 16:52 and 16:56 respectively and Hensen, Franke, Varela and Hatton ran between 17:11 and 17:37.

“I told (coach Randy Fife) I wanted to compete for first, which probably wasn’t my best idea, but I told him I wanted to try it,” Trueblood said of semistate. “He told me to fill in near the 10 spot, hang with that pack and see what that does for me, and it ended up being pretty good advice because I PR’d, I broke 16 (minutes) and I felt pretty good the whole race.”

During the race, Franke got tangled up with another runner and ran part of the race with blood running down his calf and only one shoe. He ended up being the No. 5 runner, and then Varela was the sixth man.

“Last week, I felt like I needed to push it for the team, and I feel like I did,” Varela said. “I know as the sixth man, some people say it doesn’t really matter because it’s the top five that counts, but I know that whatever I perform out there can still benefit our team and pushes the other guys.”

Depth has carried the team a long way this year, Luke Tormoehlen said.

“Offseason training to build a base with mileage, and then Coach putting out the workouts that we need to have for speed and depth,” Tormoehlen said. “We have more depth this year than we’ve ever had, with nine guys under 18 minutes. That’s the best we’ve ever had.”

The seniors have goals for themselves and the team at state.

“I feel like I’ve worked up to this point and I should be able to get top 25 at state and have another pretty good race,” Trueblood said.

Individually, Varela said, “I had a PR last week, but I am hoping to get it down a little farther, maybe 10 seconds.” And team-wise, he said, “We’re predicted 24th at state, but we know we can do better than that. We know what we’re capable of, and we just know we have to try hard out there.”

Franke said, “Personally, I want to break 17 minutes. That’s a goal I’ve had all season. And team-wise, we’re trying to get top 20 at least.”

After battling through a couple of injuries and only being able to run in four meets, Emigh said he’s glad to get a chance to run in the final big meet.

“My PR is 16:59 on the record book, but it’d be nice to hit 16:58,” Emigh said. “I came back and trained for a couple days and got 19:07 and trained a couple days and got 18:29, and then about a week later on hills, 18:26. Mid-17s shouldn’t be a problem, but I’m just going to have to push myself and hopefully get under 17.”

Fife said Seymour is the only unranked team at state, but competing against ranked teams is nothing new to the Owls.

“The big difference will be the depth of the field,” he said. “Usually, you go to a big invitational and you’ve got some top teams there, but there are usually some teams that are not, and those are the teams we usually beat.”

Fife said there’s potential for five of his boys to break 17 minutes.

“We’re excited to be going over,” Fife said. “There are 24 teams there, six from each of the four semistates. We got sixth in our semistate, so we understand that if we don’t want to get 24th, we’ve got to approach this as taking care of business.”

Some of the seniors are familiar with the Terre Haute course, but it’s been several years since they have competed on it.

“A few years ago, we had pre-state there, and I remember it was hilly and there were a lot of straightaways that were long,” Trueblood said.

With the straightaway at the start, Franke said, “You can’t go out too strong or you’re going to lose it. It’s one where you can get caught, and the last 400 or 600 meters, it’s just a straight shot, so the kick is going to be a long one.”

The seniors said it’s nice to know that their final meet of the year is at the state level.

“We’ve been saying it ever since our freshman year that we’re going to get back to state, we’re going to go,” Trueblood said. “Then, senior year, we actually do it. It’s a great opportunity to show what we’ve got and we’re still able to compete. I feel like we’ve done pretty good, and we deserve to be at state.”

Emigh is happy to get a chance to run one last time.

“I was going to be upset about the end of the season,” Emigh said, “but now that I get to end it on the state meet, I’m not too mad about the season being over. To end it on the state meet, it’s pretty exciting.”

This is only Varela’s second year running, and he said, “Last year, I felt like I was sort of doubted about my skills. This year, I’ve pushed myself up, so it’s a great accomplishment. I’m pretty happy to help the team out and get this far.”

Franke ran the past three years at Trinity Lutheran High School, and he has stepped in at Seymour and improved individually and helped the team at the same time.

“My times have definitely gone down. I think also I’ve become a better strategic racer, and I kind of have a game plan now of what I want to do in a race instead of just going out there and running,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to leave at the top, go out at the top of the game, the farthest you can possibly go.”

In ending his final year of cross country at state, Tormoehlen said, “I’m glad I know when my last high school meet is going to be instead of going to semistate and not get (to state). I’m glad it was my senior year. It just makes it that much more of a reward.”

Fife said the seniors have done an “excellent” job as leaders.

“One of the biggest reasons we’ve made it to state is because the seniors set that as a goal to get to state,” Fife said. “We’ve set that goal each of the last three years and haven’t made it. I think the seniors kind of felt a sense of urgency that it is now or never and they didn’t want to end their career without being in the state finals.”

He’s glad to see them focused on the future, too.

“They wanted to get to state, but what they’ve done is they’ve brought along a lot of the younger kids with some good encouragement,” Fife said. “A lot of the success the younger kids have had is because the seniors have welcomed them into the program, and they’ve got the younger kids excited about cross country.”

———

Arv Koontz contributed to this story.

IN THE NEWS - Senior Focus

Senior Focus: Ben Franke
Seymour High School

October 28, 2011 1:42 AM
By ARV KOONTZ
Ben Franke says it takes perseverance to be successful in athletics.

When Franke was running cross country his freshman year at Trinity Lutheran, his goal was to break 20 minutes. On Saturday, he will be running in the state meet with the Seymour team. He set his personal record (17:13) at the Brown County Semistate last Saturday.

“To break 17 (minutes) is my goal,” he said of the state meet. “Perseverance is the key to it because in seventh grade, I walked my first meet. I was not very good, but with the help of coaches and with God-given ability, I was able to become better and now I’m on a state-qualifying team.”

He said he improved his time by 53 seconds this season.

“We run as a team,” he said. “We had this common goal at the beginning of the season to make it to state. There were some rough spots. We had some down meets, but we never strayed away from that goal.”

Franke said he has liked running on the different courses.

“That is something that is unique about cross country,” he said. “In basketball, the rim is a certain height and the courts are a certain dimension. In cross country, you could run hilly courses or flat courses. You can run on dirt, grass, gravel, roads, you have it all.”

He said he has had to learn how to pace himself.

“You can’t go out too fast or you’ll get winded by halfway through the race,” he said. “Luke (Tormoehlen) usually helps pace me on the first mile, and then if I want to go, I go, or if I want to stay with him, I stay with him.”

In track and field, Franke ran the mile, 2-mile and 3,200 relay at Trinity, and he hopes to concentrate on the individual events at Seymour.

“The mile has been my favorite event that I’ve come to love,” he said. “Breaking 4:40 this year is my goal.”

Franke said he began running cross country in seventh grade at Immanuel Lutheran School, but he didn’t begin his track career until his freshman year.

“I never really was fast,” he said. “(Cross country) is longer and I can strategize more, and that is something I like. You can make up for mistakes easier in a (longer) race. In the 100, if you get a bad start, you’re done.”

He said he may try to run in college.



Ben Franke file

PARENTS: Tom and Nancy Franke

SIBLINGS: Rachel, Matthew, Daniel, Rebekah

SPORTS: Cross country 4 years, track and field 4 years, bowling 2 years

FAVORITE COURSE: “I liked the Northview Church course in Carmel at the FlashRock Invitational.”

MEETS: “It was nice to have a conference meet. I had never done something like that before, but I also do miss some of the smaller meets that Trinity ran in.”

ATTENDING SHS: “It’s been a little different going from a school of 150 to a school of 1,100.”

ORGANIZATIONS: Fellowship of Christian Athletes, D.A.R.E. Role Model, 4-H, drama

FUTURE PLANS: Attend college and major in business

Pep Session!!

There will be a pep session Thursday evening at 6:30 in the high school gymnasium for volleyball and boys cross country. The band and cheerleaders will be there. The younger volleyball girls will be doing a skit for the volleyball team. Athletes will be introduced and coaches will speak.

If you have suggestions of things to include, etc., please let Coach Fife know!

Runner In The News - Other than for running

Ryan Clay plays the alto sax with the Seymour High School Marching Owls in the American Legion parking lot after the band participated Monday night in the annual Seymour Evening Lions Club Halloween Parade.

Tribune photo by Dan Davis

IN THE NEWS - Senior Focus

Senior Focus: Luke Tormoehlen
Seymour High School

October 25, 2011 12:10 AM
By ARV KOONTZ

Luke Tormoehlen says cross country and track and field are like all other high school sports in that you have to work hard to have success.

“I’ve gotten a lot of life lessons through hard work,” the Seymour senior said of distance running. “Mileage is the key, and you’re not going to get anywhere unless you put in the mileage. I run throughout the summer, and I’ve peaked at 70 miles a week for five weeks.”

Tormoehlen said he ran 350 miles over a 35-day period, and he felt that was a good base coming into the cross country season.

For most of the fall season, Tormoehlen has been the Owls’ No. 3 runner. The Owls had second-place finishes in conference, sectional, regional and the pre-state meet at Brown County.

“We have five seniors, and they all have the same goal,” he said. “One of the goals at the camping trip was to go to state, and at one of the cross country camps I went to, the Bloomington South coach said, ‘You go as your seniors go,’ and I’ve made that a point that we’re going to state. I lead by example.”

Tormoehlen ran his career-best time of 16:56 at semistate on Saturday, and that put him on the school career record board.

“I try to hit my first K in a certain time, and not too fast because I don’t want to go into oxygen debt early so I can come back with a strong last two miles,” he said. “That is most important.”

Tormoehlen said he blocks out the heat.

“I like any kind of inclement weather,” he said. “I like competing in that because I think I have a mental edge. Other guys might take that as a disadvantage. I think if it’s hot, it’s hot. The 50s to 60s is PR (personal record) weather. That’s where most of the world records are broken.”

When the team runs in the state meet on Saturday, Tormoehlen said, “We want to compete. We’re not just happy to be there. I hope we can get in the top 20 teams.”

In the spring, Tormoehlen will be running the mile and two-mile in track and field.

“I hope to break 10 minutes in the two-mile and break 4:30 in the mile,” he said. “It will take more quality miles in the winter. I’ll take two weeks off, and then start back up again at around 30 miles a week. You get paced better on the track because you can hit your spots.”

The Owls have won five straight track and field sectional titles, and Tormoehlen said, “I want to win another sectional championship. Our distance is going to have to carry us because we lost a lot of sprinters.”



Luke Tormoehlen file

PARENTS: Joe and Robin Tormoehlen

SIBLINGS: Jack, Trent, Nate

SPORTS: Cross country 4 years, track and field 4 years, basketball 2 years

HIGHLIGHTS: Helping the Owls win cross country sectional and regional titles in 2009 and 2010 and qualify for state in 2011, and win track and field sectional titles in 2009, 2010 and 2011

COURSES: “My favorite course is Brown County. It’s flat, it’s fast and the grass is short. I’ve ran on the Bedford course since sixth grade, and Brown County is probably the second-most I’ve ran on.”

HOME TRACK MEETS: “I like our track a lot because I like the surface of it, and I like the atmosphere because some meets we draw a crowd.”

ATTENDING SHS: “I like the academic opportunities they provide through AP (advanced placement) courses and college-level classes that other schools don’t. The teachers work hard, and they allow the students to flourish.”

ORGANIZATIONS: National Honor Society (president), Student Government, Key Club, Renaissance, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Super Bowl Host Committee (First and Green Initiative)

FUTURE PLANS: Attend Indiana University and major in business