NEW CARLISLE – For 90 minutes, at least, Warsaw’s Ashley Erba was clearly the fastest high school girl cross country runner in Indiana history.
But before the Tiger bus even made it out of the parking lot at Saturday’s New Prairie semistate, Erba learned she will have to do it all over again next week.
An historic state championship race is shaping up next weekend in Terre Haute, as Erba and Mishawaka’s Anna Rohrer face off one last time. Each shattered semistate marks Saturday afternoon.
Erba, a senior and defending IHSAA state champion, clocked 17:06.9 on New Prairie’s famed 5,000-meter course in New Carlisle, shattering both the previous semistate and course records. She also lowered the all-time Indiana best from the 17:12.5 she recorded a week earlier at the Culver Academies regional.
But even as her accomplishment was being acknowledged at the awards ceremony, word arrived from Fort Wayne that Mishawaka's Rohrer – the only cross country runner to beat Erba in the past two years – had clocked 17:03.9 to win the New Haven semistate.
Rohrer did it a couple hours after Erba finished her race. So, the Mishawaka sophomore officially assumes the mantle as Indiana’s fastest. At least for the next week.
“I really don’t care what anybody else does,” said Erba, looking ahead to next Saturday’s showdown at the Wabash Valley Sports Center, near Terre Haute. “Anna is an incredible runner, but … I focus on my own things. I’m really not concerned with what anybody else is doing, I like to focus on what I’m going to do.”
The top six teams and top 15 individual finishers at a semistate qualify for the state meet.
IHSAA BOYS & GIRLS SEMISTATE
CROSS COUNTRY TOURNAMENT
At New Carlisle
BOYS
Team scores: Valparaiso 45, Warsaw 60, McCutcheon 189, Hobart 189, West Lafayette 207, Lowell 209, Munster 210, Crown Point 211, LaPorte 230, Portage 231, Lake Central 249, Wheeler 279, Chesterton 302, Rochester 306, Culver Academies 384, Western 402, Lafayette Jeff 405, Frankfort 501, Twin Lakes 514, Carroll (Flora) 551.
Top 20 finishers: 1, Alec Kostelnik (Morgan Twp.) 15:45.9. 2, Jacob Poyner (Warsaw) 15:49.0. 3, Kyle Eller (Lowell) 15:57.8. 4, Robert Murphy (Warsaw) 15:59.4. 5, Ellis Coon (Warsaw) 16:03.4. 6, Ari Coulopoulos (Valparaiso) 16:03.9. 7, Taylor Bisacchi (Valparaiso) 16:07.4. 8, Nick Arndt (New Prairie) 16:12.2. 9, Anthony Didion (LaPorte) 16:13.5. 10, Landon Davison (Valparaiso) 16:14.1. 11, Dunn Brent (Hobart) 16:15.5. 12, Peyton Reed (Valparaiso) 16:18.3. 13, Cooper Williams (West Lafayette) 16:18.8. 14, Joel O’Shea (Wheeler) 16:20.0. 15, Alex Ray (Crown Pt) 16:20.6. 16, Tom Bolanowski (Munster) 16:22.3. 17, Jacob Wickes (McCutcheon) 16:24.9. 18, Pat Dalton (Valparaiso) 16:24.9. 19, Brian Blaylock (Lowell) 16:30.7. 20, Kevin Kenney (Chesterton) 16:31.6.
OTHER WARSAW: 27, Brysten James 16:37.9 … 33, Daniel Messenger 16:44.6 … 45, Owen Glogovsky 17:02.6 … 60, Ismael Calderon 17:23.9.
GIRLS
Team scores: West Lafayette 38, Eastern (Greentown) 93, Valparaiso 167, Chesterton 172, Warsaw 180, Portage 184, LaPorte 194, Rochester 238, New Prairie 256, Lake Central 267, Crown Point 286, Harrison (Lafayette) 319, Hobart 341, Hebron 367, Culver Academies 382, Munster 391, Twin Lakes 396, Seeger 407, Plymouth 424, Frankfort 572.
Top 20 finishers: 1, Ashley Erba (Warsaw) 17:06.9 (SEMISTATE RECORD). 2, Bobbie Burgess (West Lafayette) 17:38.0. 3, Bethany Neeley (Eastern-Greentown) 18:18.3. 4, Elena Lancioni (LaPorte) 18:36.5. 5, Madeline Lilly (Twin Lakes) 18:51.1. 6, Anna Bearss (Rochester) 18:51.3. 7, Grace Lachmund (West Lafayette) 18:59.2. 8, Taylor Austin (Griffith) 19:00.0. 9, Lauren Johnson (West Lafayette) 19:05.0. 10, Sarah Ray (Warsaw) 19:05.1. 11, Kristen Johnson (West Lafayette) 19:08.3. 12, Cailey Daluga (West Lafayette) 19:11.3. 13, Rachel Thompson (New Prairie) 19:15.4. 14, Brittany Neeley (Eastern-Greentown) 19:17.3. 15, Delaney Barber (West Lafayette) 19:18.9. 16, Kyra Ball (Portage) 19:21.5. 17, Olivia Johnson (Harrison-Lafayette) 19:23.9. 18, Anna Meyer (Rochester) 19:38.4. 19, Sarah Wagner (Eastern-Greentown) 19:39.6. 20, Mindy Whidden (Hobart) 19:42.6.
