Saturday morning South’s cross country teams traveled to Bedford North Lawrence High School to compete for the IHSAA sectional title.
The girls competed hard, coming in as a close second behind a strong North girls team. Freshman Abby Beathea led the Panthers with a third place individual finish, with junior Katrina Tann coming in sixth.
The big story of the day came from the boys side, where the No. 3 state ranked Panthers were beaten out by the Bloomington North Cougars. Having dominated the Cougars in their previous varsity meetings, the Panthers were likely surprised to see such a strong showing from their crosstown rival. North claimed the first and third individual place finishes, while South had senior Ian Shaw come across the line first for a fourth place finish. Oddly enough, the higher ranked Panthers also lost the sectional to North last year, but were able to win the regional and semi-state competitions. Hopefully, South will be motivated to recreate last year’s post-season success and will overlook some uncharacteristic performances as they head into the regional next weekend.
