Clark runs fastest cross country race of his life for 11th; Rheam medals at 13th at state
TERRE HAUTE — Like father, and mother, like son.
Bloomington North's Kyle Clark and South's Ryan Rheam, knew it was inside of them and perhaps it started with their genes.
Clark, a senior, saved his best for last, running the fastest cross country race of his life in 15:37.3 to finish 11th in the IHSAA boys' state cross country meet on the LaVern Gibson Championship Course in Terre Haute on Saturday. Not far behind was Rheam, finishing 13th in 15:42.2.
Rheam, a junior, joins his dad as another father-son combination to earn a spot on the medal stand. Erick finished ninth, 13th and third for Anderson from 1988-90. Clark, 19th as a sophomore, joins the rare mother-son combination to earn more than one spot on the state medal stand, with Amanda Warthan taking 11th, third and fourth from 1991-93.
"It's going to take me a moment to talk about that," said North coach Charlie Warthan, who just happens to be Amanda's father and Kyle's grandfather. "It's very rewarding in a couple of ways. As a sophomore he ran just a perfect race for 19th and I was very pleased he was able to medal that year. The disheartening thing is that he wound up missing the award ceremony because I thought he had time to go on a recovery run.
"So I'm wondering, is this ever going to happen again? (Clark was 122nd last year.) He's run well all season but not like he did today. He put himself in a position of doing better than he did and to get himself in that position was awesome. Eleventh is a great day."
Clark's finish was North's best since Paul Rushton was 10th in 2019 and the best time at state by a Cougar since Mark Vilardo's 15:21 (at South Grove Golf Course), while Rheam's finish was South's best since Ian Shaw took 13th in 2018. Rheam's time is the best by a Panther since Shaw's 15:41.9 in 2017.
"Ryan did not look as smooth at the 3k as he has lately, but he never quit and kept passing runners over the last 1.5 k to move into the 13th and state medaling spot," South coach Larry Williams said. "It was great to see him with that medal around his neck after having his first healthy season of his high school career.
"Ryan has been a great team leader and example of perseverance. I am very proud of him and look forward to several more healthy seasons ahead of him."
North finishes 7th
North had the better team performance over South this time.
The Cougars had five in the top 125 to score 265 points to place seventh by two points over Northridge, it's best effort since taking sixth in 2014.
"That doesn't always happen. What you want and what you get sometimes is a different story," Warthan said. "I didn't put a lot of pressure on the kids. I just wanted them to run to their ability level. That's what we talked about during the week and fortunately, we were able to pull that off.
"Our goals were realistic and not so far out there we were stressing about it. Our goal was to be the best team out of the (Brown County) semistate outside of Columbus North. I thought we had a shot at the other two teams who got us (Floyd Central and South) and today the kids ran well and we were able to pull that goal off. Did I expect seventh? Absolutely not."
Jacob Mitchell became the highest finishing freshman in school history, taking 38th in 16:11.4, to better the 85th by Andrew Buzzelli in 2005. Mitchell was the No. 2 freshman overall this year. Westview's Noah Bontrager was 12th.
"He's obviously a very special kid," Warthan said. "He has that drive and wants to be the best. It's a stickler the kid up north is the No. 1 freshman so he's definitely motivated."
The next three Cougars were separated by just 20 seconds with Dominic D'Onofrio 98th (16:46.6), Gabe Herrera 109th (16:52.5) and Nic Kaiser 123rd (17:06.0).
"It was good to see Dom there," Warthan said. "He's been a little bit up and down. He was our sixth man at semistate so he realized his ability and elevated that today. Nic, as a senior, he's struggled throughout his career with the excitement of race day, so he overcame that and did a good job today.
"Gabe has also been instrumental in putting himself in position as a point of reference for our guys to run with Gabe. Those fourth and fifth men are where a lot of points are scored so they really helped the team do what it did."
South takes 16th
Carmel won the team title with a 103 to nip Zionsville (106), with Center Grove (143), Columbus North (157) and Noblesville (166) rounding out the top five. South had a 389, 19 behind Goshen, with Floyd Central 12th (329). It was a hot day and the Panthers suffered.
Junior Hunter Tabor was the Panthers' No. 2 finisher in 88th (16:40.4), improving 48 spots and 45 seconds off last year's state race.
"It was a bittersweet race," Williams said. "The team gave such effort, but that effort put a few in distress with the heat (upper 60s by race time).
IHSAA cross country:On stage or on the course, Bloomington South's Hunter Tabor's encore keeps getting better
"As I stood by Hunter in the medical barn after the race, looking at several others being observed and then recalling the number of athletes that I saw stumble, fall and slowed by the conditions. We make no excuses but I know the boys were spent. Some of it may be getting out so hard on such a day, or just the heat. But so many predicted finishes were turned upside down in the meet."
Senior Jack Gildea came in 135th (17:18.7) with Suoming Zhang 149th (17:25.8) and Joe Zinkan rounding out the top five in 151st (17:27.2). Tabor's first k was 2:56, Gildea's 2:53 and Zinkan's 2:58.
"A lot of disappointing looks on our runners," Williams said. "But a group that is determined to get back to work for some postseason racing and then on to spring track."
IHSAA BOYS' STATE FINALS
Team scores: 1. Carmel 103; 2. Zionsville 106; 3. Center Grove 143; 4. Columbus North 157; 5. Noblesville 166; 6. Fishers 224; 7. Bloomington North 265; 8. Northridge 267; 9. Chesterton 304; 10. Franklin Central 322; 11. Brebeuf Jesuit 325; 12. Floyd Central 328; 13. Valparaiso 352; 14. Penn 361; 15. Goshen 370; 16. Bloomington South 389; 17. Ft. Wayne Concordia 398; 18. Warsaw 420; 19. LaPorte 444; 20. Jasper 446; 21. Lake Central 465; 22. Hamilton Southeastern 505; 23. Evansville Reitz 544; 24. West Lafayette 616.
Top indviduals: 1. Kole Mathison, Carm, 15:02.8; 2. Tony Provenzano, Carm, 15:11.2; 3. Cameron Todd, BJ, 15:11.2; 4. Ty Garrett, CG, 15:31.6; 5. Matteo Rosio, BJ, 15:32.4; 6. Asher Propst, Nob, 15:33.7; 7. Nate Killeen, NC, 15:34.7; 8. Brayden Henkle, FrC, 15:35.6; 9. William Bauschke, Mishawaka, 15:36.3; 10. Aaron Lord, New Albany, 15:36.5.
Bloomington North: 11. Kyle Clark, 15:37.3; 38. Jacob Mitchell, 16:11.4; 98. Dominic D'Onofrio, 16:46.6; 109. Gabe Herrera, 16:52.5; 123. Nic Kaiser, 17:06.0; 136. Caelen D'Onofro, 17:18.9; 176. Jack Holden, 17:58.9.
Bloomington South: 13. Ryan Rheam, 15:42.2; 88. Hunter Tabor, 16:40.4; 135. Jack Gildea, 17:18.7; 149. Suoming Zhang 17:25.8; 151. Joe Zinkan, 17:27.2; 152. Jake Keller, 17:27.4; 182. Marshall Caldwell, 18:03.1.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington South, North both medal at IHSAA cross country state
