Loogootee Jr-Sr High School

The Loogootee Cross Country program headed south Saturday to the Crawford County Kickoff, with all four Lions teams putting together solid efforts on a competitive course. The varsity boys placed 26th in the team standings with 699 points. Knox Jeffers led the Lions with a strong 40th-place finish in 17:32.9, followed by Bode Graber in 151st at 20:57.8. Jackson Lengacher finished 161st in 21:30.5, Jacob Venters was 172nd in 22:16.8, and Chase Miller crossed in 175th at 22:40.9. Lucas Helderman, Nolan Lents, and Noah Hager also competed for Loogootee. The varsity girls were represented by Ava Jeffers and Reese Gibson. Jeffers finished 88th in 22:52.0, while Gibson crossed the line 126th in 24:05.9. The Loogootee Middle School boys turned in the strongest team finish of the day, placing 6th out of 10 teams with 139 points. Griffyn Thompson led the Lions with an impressive 7th-place finish in 11:11.0, followed by Chayse Houston in 21st at 11:49.0 and Noah Sergent in 31st at 12:28.6. Liam Hilligoss added a 39th-place finish in 12:58.7, while August Weitkamp finished 41st in 13:05.1 to round out the team score. Ryder Davis (13:20.2) and Aden Summers (14:44.4) also competed well for the Lions. The Middle School girls finished 7th out of eight teams with 192 points. Embry Wade paced the Lions with a 20th-place finish in 13:37.7, while Lyric Graber was 31st in 14:19.9. Avrie Bratton crossed in 54th at 15:10.0, Everlye Jeffers was 56th in 15:18.4, and Harper Tinkle finished 84th in 18:28.4. It was a strong opening test for the Lions, with runners from all four teams getting their first opportunity to compete in an invitational with over 1,000 runners present. The work continues from here as Loogootee Cross Country looks to build throughout the fall. The middle school team will be back in action on Tuesday at the Dubois Invitational while the varsity team waits until Thursday to travel to Gibson Southern for an invite.