New Prairie senior Braden Bachmann continued his outstanding senior season Saturday, winning the boys race at the Culver Academies XC Invitational in a time of 15:55.50. Running under sunny skies with temperatures around 61 degrees, Bachmann finished 8 seconds ahead of the runner-up to claim the individual championship. His time was just off his personal best mark of 15:55.08, set earlier this season at the Harrison Invitational. With the victory, Bachmann joins an impressive list of New Prairie runners who have won the Culver Invitational, including Dave Deneve (2x), Mike McClaran, Glenn Arndt (2x), Joe Baltes, Mike Singleton, Mike Claeys, Ryan Toth and David Kampf. Bachmann's performance also marked a significant improvement from his previous appearance at Culver. He ran 16:51 at last year's meet, making Saturday's performance more than 55 seconds faster. Behind Bachmann, the Cougars turned in one of their strongest team performances of the season, finishing sixth overall in the large school division. The Cougars also defeated all but one Northern Indiana Conference team in the field. Ayden Carpenter led the next group of Cougars, running 17:54.57, followed closely by Aidan Jaronik at 18:02.46 and Evan Thibodeau at 18:02.56. Lukas Hannewyk continued the team's strong pack with an 18:38.48, giving New Prairie five scoring runners averaging 18:06.59. Several Cougars also made substantial year-to-year gains at the same meet. Carpenter improved from 18:18 to 17:54.57, Jaronik from 18:47 to 18:02.46, Thibodeau from 20:04 to 18:02.56, and Isaac True from 20:22 to 18:47.86. Chase Shelton also dropped from 21:39 in last year's reserve race to 19:18.35 on Saturday. True was next in 18:47.86, followed by Mitchell Walls in 19:13.08, Shelton in 19:18.35, and Owen Otwinowski in 19:40.65. The Cougars also received strong performances from their runners competing in the reserve race. Ricky Corbett ran 19:56.10, followed by Chase Vann at 19:59.80, Sullivan Young at 20:07.50, Jackson Firanek at 20:13.50, Ryese Lake at 20:33.50, and James Willis at 21:16.20. For Otwinowski and Firanek, Saturday's performances also showed significant development from last year's Culver meet. Both competed as eighth-graders in the 3K at Culver in 2025, with Otwinowski running 12:17.20, equivalent to approximately a 21:05 5K, and Firanek running 12:29.10, equivalent to approximately a 21:26 5K. One year later, both runners broke 20:15 at the same meet. The Cougars will be back in action October 3 at the NIC Championships at Oxbow Park. Full results: https://culverathletics.com/sports/2026/8/31/44th-annual-cross-country-invite.aspx