With a young team that features four freshmen, a sophomore and a junior among its seven runners, Franklin women's cross country set somewhat modest expectations for itself going into Saturday's HCAC Championships, which were contested over 6 kilometers at Blue River Memorial Park in Shelbyville, Indiana.

Sixth place was seen as the team's ceiling pitted against a more experienced field, but the Grizzlies hit that ceiling, landing in the number six spot with 172 points.

"They executed the game plan well," Franklin coach Brandon Dworak said. "We had some youngsters that held it down for us today in the scoring five there, so overall we were pretty happy with the results."

Manchester won a closely contested team race with 55 points, led by individual champion Chesnee Miller.

The Grizzlies' lone senior, Wynn Wellington, led the way for the team with a 26th-place individual finish. Wellington moved up 13 places over the second half the race to post a time of 25:34.58, narrowly missing honorable mention all-conference. Also placing in the top 40 were sophomore Fiona Sodrel, who was 35th in 26:14.09, and freshman Ariana Sheckler, who finished 39th in 26:24.66.

"Me and Ari and Fiona all stuck together and pushed each other through the first, at least half of the race, up through four kilometers," Wellington said. "We worked together super well as a team, and I think that helped us really be able to push and keep working through the race."

Andrea Madrigal was next up for Franklin, placing 51st in 28:03.99. Cailyn Baechle (28:18.27, 55th), Elliott Taylor (28:29.18, 56th) and Alora Coble (29:08.59, 61st) filled out the Griz lineup.

Franklin will be back in action on Nov. 15 in the NCAA Great Lakes Regional at Tom Sawyer Park in Louisville. Dworak is hopeful that Saturday's effort will give the team some momentum going into that meet as well as the upcoming indoor and outdoor seasons on the track.

"This should be a confidence booster for sure," the coach said. "Not just for next year, but going into track season. ... I feel good about that; hopefully they feel good about that too."