New Palestine High School

The New Palestine cross country teams both finished fifth in Saturday's Mt. Vernon sectional and will advance to next week's regional at Shelbyville. The top five teams advance to the regional. The Dragons girls finished fifth out of nine complete teams, tallying 126 places. Franklin Central (17), Cathedral (81), Greenfield-Central (95) and Mt. Vernon (122) are also advancing. The Dragons finished 16 places ahead of sixth-place Lawrence North. Abby Journay led the Dragons with a 10th-place finish in 20:07.09. Taylor Burke was 14th (20:33.4), Taylor Stone placed 33rd (21:27.3), Heidi Bloomer 37th (21:49.0) and McKenzie Hacker 38th (21:50.3). The Dragons boys finished fifth out of 13 full teams to advance, tallying 139 places. Mt. Vernon and Franklin Central tied for first with 42 places, with MV winning on a tiebreaker. Lawrence North (79) and Greenfield-Central (104) are also advancing. The Dragons placed 32 places ahead of sixth-place Warren Central (171). Jake Cooper finished eighth overall in 16:17.2. Mike Bauer was 25th (17:14.4), Gavin Smith 29th (17:38.1), Carson Cooper 31st (17:41.2) and Hayden Flanagan 46th (18:16.2). The Dragons will compete in the Oct. 26 regional at Blue River Park in Shelbyville, with the first race beginning at 10:30 a.m.