Tippecanoe XC Boys Capture CBC Title

The Tippecanoe high school boys cross country team took care of business at the Central Buckeye Conference Championships on Saturday, October 11th, scoring only 36 points and beating 2nd place Bellefontaine by 48 points. After not racing the previous weekend and treating the Miami County Championships as a hard workout two weeks prior, the boys' team entered the meet hungry for success against the always competitive CBC field. The CBC routinely qualifies many individuals and teams to the state tournament in Columbus year after year. Within the conference there are many individual rivalries, and the top runners from each team all compete with the burning desire to finish in the top 7 to earn First-Team All-CBC honors. The great competition and weather lead to many personal best times despite the challenging course which included one large hill and many short, but steep, inclinations.
Overall, the boys' team performed better than they have all year which is a true testament to their great work ethic and great coaches Ron Rohrer and Nick Culver. 11 of Tipp's 12 runners ran personal best times. Tipp also had their best top 5 average team time of 16:29. The pack of Jason Salyer, Kevin Fink, Jason Bruns, and Tyler Fietshans ran relatively close to each other during the first mile, trailing only to Bellefontaine's top two runners. After the mile mark both Jason Salyer and Kevin Fink took control of the lead and never looked back, eventually finishing 1st and 2nd. Salyer won with a time of 15:57 and Fink 2nd finished with a time of 16:05. Jason Bruns also earned 1st Team All-CBC honors by finishing 6th with a time of 16:25. Tyler Fietshans just missed that honor, placing 8th with a time 16:32 and earning 2nd Team All-CBC honors. The tandem of Luke Zerkle and Matt Zuzolo rounded out the top 20. Luke finished 19th and Matt finished 20th, both finishing in a time of 17:25. Zach Wertz finished 25th overall with a time of 17:43. A total of 107 runners competed in the race.
The title is Tipp's second straight CBC Championship and third straight Kenton Trail Division Championship. The win also finishes off Tipp's undefeated regular season against D2 competition. The boys' team now heads into the post-season schedule. They run next week at the Career Technology Center for their District race. The Regional meet in Troy follows that race, and the season comes to a close at the State Championships in Columbus. The team definitely has the right pieces for a state championship. If they continue to work hard and stay injury-free, anything is possible.