The New Prairie boys cross country team competed in the Northern Indiana Conference Championships this morning at Oxbow Park in Elkhart. The Cougars battled to a 3rd-place team finish with 79 points, trailing only Penn (20) and South Bend St. Joseph (71). At the NIC Stomp in August, the Cougars were beaten badly by both St. Joseph (by 68 points) and Adams (by 47 points). Today, however, New Prairie outpaced Adams by 31 points and closed the gap on St. Joe to just 8 points, which is a strong rate of improvement over the last six weeks! Leading the way for NP was Braden Bachmann, who ran an incredible race from start to finish. Braden mixed it up with Penn’s front pack and finished 3rd overall in 16:24, just seconds behind the runner-up. Ayden Carpenter (16th, 17:34), Lukas Hannewyk (18th, 17:36), and Mitchell Walls (20th, 17:43) all finished in the top 20. Senior Evan Wiesemann (22nd, 17:56) rounded out the Cougars’ scoring five. Aidan Jaronik (26th, 18:07) and Sullivan Young (35th, 18:59) completed the varsity lineup for New Prairie. In the reserve race, New Prairie showed off its depth by finishing 2nd overall as a team. Ricky Corbett (19:38), Ryese Lake (19:39), and Evan Thibodeau (19:44) crossed within seconds of each other, demonstrating great pack running. Chase Vann (20:22) and Chase Shelton (20:23) were close behind, with Samuel Ringer (20:47), Isaac True (20:49), Joey Smith (22:42), and Mason Skoglund (27:46) capping off the reserve lineup. New Prairie saw a dramatic improvement across the board compared to last year’s NIC Championships. Braden Bachmann cut nearly 40 seconds from his 17:02 a year ago. Lukas Hannewyk finished over a minute ahead of last year’s mark. Ayden Carpenter dropped more than three minutes from 20:55 to 17:34. Aidan Jaronik cut nearly a minute and a half from last year’s 19:35 to this year’s 18:07. Chase Shelton (22:11 down to 20:23) and Isaac True (22:44 down to 20:49) dropped nearly two minutes each. The NPCC boys will be back in action on October 18th at the New Prairie Sectional!