Columbus East High School

The Columbus East girls and boys cross-country teams competed Saturday morning at Floyd Central High School in the 2025 Hoosier Hills Conference Championships, wrapping up the regular season and fine tuning their running form before the 2025 IHSAA Sectional starts October 18th at Brown County High School. On the boys’ side, the Olympians finished third overall with a team score of 84 points, just behind Seymour (60) and host Floyd Central (28). Sophomore Norman Dickson led East with a standout performance, crossing the line in 16:18.3 to earn runner-up honors and finish only three seconds behind the overall champion from Floyd Central. Senior Elijah Clore placed 17th in 17:25.1, followed closely by sophomore Riley Wilson in 18th at 17:43.0. Senior Lorren Westerfeld added a 20th-place finish in 17:52.9, while junior Maddox Hult completed the scoring in 27th with a time of 18:12.5. Rounding out the varsity lineup were sophomore Cullen Fullerton (32nd, 18:42.3) and freshman Beckett Mocas (35th, 19:04.8). For the girls, Columbus East placed seventh as a team with 167 points, showing solid effort and improvement across the lineup. Sophomore Ainsley Shaw paced the Olympians, running a strong race to finish 15th overall in 21:05.2. Junior Abby Collins clocked 23:54.2 for 34th place, while freshman Brooke Newell came in 37th at 24:15.9. Junior Daphne May was 40th in 25:36.4, and junior Trinity Burns rounded out East’s scoring in 41st with a time of 25:44.6. Also competing for the Olympians were Abiga Morales Pascual (26:08.1), Delaney Rogers (26:48.1), and Isabel Burbrink (27:02.2). Both Columbus East teams will now turn their focus toward the IHSAA sectional meet as they look to extend their postseason runs and continue building on Saturday’s performances.