

Senior staff writer
Franklin Central won girls and boys cross-country regional championships Saturday at Rushville, and Center Grove’s girls team captured the Shelbyville Regional title.
Roncalli’s Nicholas Perkins won the 5K race at Rushville and Southport’s Michael Crook won at Shelbyville in a one, two, three Perry Township finish. Perkins was three seconds ahead of runner-up Ferino Kyle Liwanag of Warren Central. Crook was three seconds ahead of runner-up Christopher Switzer of Perry Meridian and 11 seconds ahead of third-place teammate Drew Shellenberger.
At Rushville, FC’s girls placed five runners among the top 10: Jada Reedus, second; Brianna Lawson, third, Shayla Traas, fourth; Kathryn Matthies, sixth; and Sydney Welch, 10th.
The Flashes logged 25 points in dominating the run and advancing to semistate.
In the boys race, FC’s depth paid off as the Flashes edged runner-up New Palestine 74-78. Roncalli was third and also goes to semistate.
Tenth-place Parker Millar led the Flashes and was followed by teammates Jackson Andry, 16th overall; Noah Perry 17th; Mitchell Parrish, 20th; and Brendon Glass, 35th.
Center Grove’s girls edged runner-up Shelbyville by six points and third-place Southport by nine points at Shelbyville.
The Trojans’ top finishers were Nina Fujii, 11th; Victoria Martin, 13th; Stephanie Embree, 16th; Gabrielle Harrell, 17th; and Julia Falcone 29th. Runner-up Lexi Green of Southport trailed Brenna Hanna of Greensburg by 14 seconds. Teammate Bella Green was seventh, Nicole Manning 23rd, Kayden Casey 27th and Karla Balderrama 35th.
Greenwood’s Julia Arruda and Mallory Watson also qualified. Perry Meridian, led by Triniti Spurgeon (19th) was eighth.
Center Grove’s boys were second by five points to Shelbyville Sectional champion Franklin.
Ethan Stanley was the Trojans’ top runner in 10th place and trailed by teammates Archit Malik 12th, Sebastian Martin 19th, Steven Mills 20th and Nick Wilson, 22nd.
Greenwood’s Ethan Pine was sixth and teammate Brandon Albin 16th. Greenwood Christian Academy’s Kegan Owen 31st and qualified for semistate.
All qualified Southside teams and individual runners compete Saturday in the Shelbyville Semistate at Blue River Park with the girls race at 10:30 a.m., followed by the boys run.