Clinton Prairie Boys’ Cross Country Team Advances to Semi-State at Regional

The Clinton Prairie boys’ cross country team qualified for the semi-state at Saturday’s regional meet hosted by Lafayette Harrison.

The Gophers finished third with 67 points, six points behind second-place Harrison with 61 points. West Lafayette took the team title with 52 points.

Leading the way for Prairie was sophomore Hayden Kemple, who placed third with a time of 16:05.1. Senior Neven Chasteen was seventh in 16:46.0, junior Ethan Fleischhauer finished 12th with a time of 16:59.1, sophomore Ben Bragg was 20th in 17:19.3, junior Diego Moguel was 36th in 17:55.7, and freshman Diego Rangel finished 67th in 19:39.9.

The Gophers journey to New Prairie for the semi-state. The top 10 individuals from non-qualifying teams and the top six qualifying teams advance to state the following weekend.

Clinton Prairie also had three girls who participated in the regional. Senior Claire Echelbarger was 31st in 21:17.8, freshman Sadie Weliver took 39th in 21:54.1 and sophomore Lexi Grant finished in 46th in a time of 22:18.5.

In addition to their third-place finish, the boys took third in the sectional and were the Clinton County and Hoosier Heartland Conference champions. Also, the boys ran their fastest time in their history in the regional.