The New Prairie Cougars were represented at the IHSAA Boys Cross Country State Finals on Saturday at the legendary LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, and Braden Bachmann delivered a performance that will go down in New Prairie cross country history! Braden crossed the finish line in an incredible 15:44.05, earning 39th place among Indiana's top runners. With this performance, Braden is now the fastest New Prairie runner ever to compete on the course, setting a new standard for future NPCC runners! Braden's performance represents an enormous leap forward from his state meet debut just one year ago. In 2025, Braden finished 112th with a time of 16:29.6. This year, he climbed all the way to 39th place, improving by an incredible 73 positions and taking 45.55 seconds off his previous state meet time! That's an outstanding year-over-year improvement on one of Indiana's biggest stages. Braden also significantly outperformed his preseason state ranking of 65th, finishing 26 places ahead of that projection. A top 40 finish at the IHSAA State Finals is an incredible achievement, and Braden earned every bit of it! Braden did it by working his way through the field. He reached the first mile in 4:45, sitting in 61st place. By the 2,000-meter mark, he had moved up to 56th. After reaching the 3,000-meter and two-mile checkpoints in 62nd place, Braden continued to battle. At the 4K mark, he had climbed all the way to 47th place. Braden continued to close hard, passing eight more runners over the last 1,000 meters to secure his 39th-place finish. Braden put in countless hours of training, early mornings, long miles, and tough workouts for this to happen. The progress from last November to this November is a tremendous reflection of the work he has put in. It takes so much dedication to keep improving, especially when the competition gets tougher and the stakes get higher. Thank you to everyone who has supported him throughout this journey. Cross country is a team effort, and the training, encouragement, competition, and support along the way all play a part in making days like Saturday possible. Braden represented New Prairie with pride, toughness, and determination on Indiana's biggest stage. What a way to finish the season! GO NPCC! Full results: https://in.milesplit.com/meets/772823-ihsaa-cross-country-state-championships-2026/results?type=formatted&event=5000m&gender=Boys Check out New Prairie's all-time away-course list and other historical data: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aVM63H2RBD-YZLgUFo_qlZjiEBLNKc8RUS0QWuEf4vg/edit?usp=sharing