Cross country semistate outlook

New Prairie
Semistate

When: 10:30 a.m., Saturday

Where: New Prairie High School in New Carlisle

Girls teams: Chesterton, Valparaiso, LaPorte, New Prairie, Portage, Lake Central, Hebron, Hobart, Munster, Crown Point, West Lafayette, Harrison, Seeger, Twin Lakes, Frankfort, Eastern, Warsaw, Rochester, Culver Academies, Plymouth

Girls individual qualifiers: Taylor Austin, Griffith; Sarah Edwards, Lowell; Victoria Collins, Merrillville; Becca Conley, Andrean; Kyleigh Werner, South Central; Kelly O’Shea, Wheeler; Michelle Kent, KV.

Girls runners to watch: CHESTERTON: Hannah Hoffman, Haley Cushway, Melanie Buckmaster; VALPARAISO: Alison Mundell, Aurora Bonner, Michaela Gazdich; LAPORTE: Elena Lancioni, Kailee Schoof; PORTAGE: Kyra Ball, Paige Pizer, Rhyan Sloan; HOBART: Celena Guerrero, Mindy Whitten; HEBRON: Payton Schatz, Lexie Schatz, Abby Getautas; LAKE CENTRAL: Megan Zajac, Sarah Hudi, Alaina Willis, Tatiana Lazic; MUNSTER: Emily McNicholas, Colleen Ogren; CROWN POINT: Allison Wortel, Jill Zimmerman

The skinny: Region teams historically do well at New Prairie, but there’s a juggernaut waiting for them in West Lafayette, which posted a remarkable score of 19 at the Harrison Regional last Saturday. Placing six runners in the top seven will lead to that impressive number. Chesterton was a slight surprise in winning the New Prairie Regional last week over Valparaiso, but the Trojans and Vikings should both advance out of semistate. Hebron was a slight surprise in finishing second at the Crown Point Regional ahead of bigger schools Hobart, Munster and CP. If the Hawks can repeat the overall effort, the surprises will continue with a trip to the state finals.

Next: Top six teams and top 15 individuals advance to the state finals on Oct. 27 at LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course at Wabash Valley Sports Center in Terre Haute.

— Deputy sports editor
Steve T. Gorches