Benton Central Jr-Sr High School

Hoosier Conference It’s that time of year when fall weather, senior nights, and conference contests signal the beginning of the end of the cross country season. But it is just the start of everything we have built towards for months. For smaller schools in the conference schools like Benton Central, the Hoosier Conference offers more competition than what we face at Sectional. Teamwise, our girls don’t field a scoring team and our boys fight for middle placement. But individually, BC made its mark. The 2026 Hoosier Conference girls’ champion is Benton Central’s Lillian Weigle, who took the lead early and pushed open a gap. Her time of 18:17 bested second place by over a minute. Each of the other three of our BC girls placed in the top 10. Harlo Holder (4th 19:55), Loralei Rayman (9th 21:06), and Maggie Rayman (10th 21:16) each earned All-Conference honors. Our top two boys, seniors Matthew McKinnis and Sam Fleming both set personal bests to also earn All-Conference honors. Several other bison ran personal best times or fought past key opponents for the boys to earn 4th in the conference over Sectional rival Twin Lakes. Benton Central’s Cross Country team heads into the State Tournament with momentum. Focused and determined to represent themselves and the school with pride, the bison look to another Regional appearance and beyond. The journey continues at 10 AM next Saturday at the Rensselaer Sectional.