Benton Central Jr-Sr High School

Lights, cameras, action. Terre Haute's LaVern Gibson was in full swing as Fall hit this early October. Lavern Gibson is a world-class cross country course for competitions ranging from the Indiana Middle School State meet to NCAA DI Nationals. This past weekend, LaVern hosted an estimated 6,000 high school and 600 collegiate runners at the Nike XC Town Twilight. Benton Central made its first appearance at the meet this year and left with a slew of personal and team accomplishments. Our JV boys were first to run, with five boys entered into the Boys JV Section. This was a great opportunity for our runners to face different competition from schools throughout the state. All five of our boys represented BC in their efforts and ran at or above their personal best times. For the first time this season, all four of our girls were finally able to run together as they competed in the Girls Open Race. Our girls are familiar with the rolling hills on the outskirts of Terre Haute, as they ran LaVern in the Middle School State meet as junior high runners. Lillian Weigle, in a field of 375 girls, placed first in her race and set a new school record at 18:12. This beat the previous record set by Isabel Weise in 2017. Holder set a personal best time for her 10th place finish in 19:50, and Loralei Rayman (20:10) and Maggie Rayman (20:11) would also put in excellent times as they fought for 17th and 19th place respectively. The varsity boys' team favored well under the glow of lights and bustling venue at twilight. Racing against unfamiliar competition and an unusual evening race, the boys showed up. Leading the boys' team through the pack of over 300 was senior Matthew McKinnis who set another personal best time at 17:39 and Sam Fleming only a second away from his personal best. The atmosphere of the meet was electric and one to remember. We had eleven season and/or personal bests and took down one school record in front of thousands and live-streamed to thousands more. We are incredibly thankful to have been able to take part in a meet of this magnitude and are hopeful to extend our season deep into the State Tournament, which concludes at the prestigious LaVern Gibson on October 31. The Bison take the next step toward that goal with the Hoosier Conference meet hosted by Central Catholic on Saturday October 10 at 10 AM with the girls' race.