Cougars Shine with Breakout Performances at Harrison Invite The New Prairie boys cross country team continued their strong early-season campaign with a 12th place finish at the prestigious Harrison Invitational, improving two spots from their 14th place finish in 2024. The Cougars showcased both their front-end strength and growing depth, with nearly every returner making major improvements from last season. The story of the day came from sophomore standouts Ayden Carpenter and Lukas Hannewyk, who etched their names into the program’s record books. Carpenter ran an electrifying 17:26.1, placing 60th overall and securing the fifth-fastest sophomore time in New Prairie history at the Harrison Invite. His performance was nearly four minutes faster than his 2024 Harrison debut (21:11.5). Hannewyk wasn’t far behind, clocking 17:37.1 for 70th and the sixth-fastest sophomore Harrison time in Cougar history, improving by more than 1:40 from last fall’s 19:16.9. Senior Evan Wiesemann ran a steady race in his second Harrison appearance, finishing in 18:01.3 for 88th place, improving by 32 seconds from his freshman year time, while junior Aidan Jaronik made one of the day’s biggest leaps, dropping from 20:48.9 in 2024 down to 18:10.4 this year—a staggering 2:38 improvement. Junior Mitchell Walls rounded out the scoring five with a strong 18:30.4, nearly nine minutes faster than his freshman time of 27:00.81! The Cougars’ depth also delivered in a big way. Junior Sullivan Young cut a full minute from last year (19:47.9 → 18:46.6), and junior Isaac True made one of the most dramatic jumps of the day, improving from 24:22.5 in 2024 to 19:29.5 in 2025, a drop of nearly five minutes. Junior Ryese Lake also showed big gains, improving his 5k season best by 23 seconds this fall while providing key depth. Junior Chase Shelton joined the sub-20 club at Harrison for the first time, cutting over 1:40 from his 2024 time (21:40.3 → 19:59.0). Several Cougars also made their Harrison debuts with strong efforts. Freshman Evan Thibodeau impressed in his invitational debut, running 19:40.6 to finish as the team’s eighth man. Juniors Ricky Corbett (20:33.8) and Chase Vann (20:37.5) provided incredible team depth, while sophomore Joey Smith (23:52.2) raced solidly while battling an ankle injury, and freshman Mason Skoglund rounded out the squad with a determined 27:28.9. The year-over-year progress was striking: in 2025, New Prairie had ten athletes who broke the 20 minute 5k barrier.. With Carpenter and Hannewyk emerging as historical-level talents and nearly every returner making massive drops, New Prairie has positioned itself as a dangerous and much deeper squad moving into the heart of the season. The Cougars will look to carry this momentum into their next competition as they continue building toward the championship stretch of the year.