Bloomington North's Jacob Mitchell and Caelan D'Onofrio are never far away from each other, be it in workouts or on the cross country course.

That will carry over to the next level with both seniors committing to Indianapolis colleges recently. With their futures locked in, the pair head to the LaVern Gibson Course in Terre Haute on Saturday, Nov. 1, leading the defending champion Cougars into the IHSAA state finals for the 14th year in a row and 39th overall.

There's a completely different vibe to this run, however.

"The environment last year, I remember our team dinner before state," D'Onofrio said. "It was pretty dead. Pretty quiet. We all ate dinner and we left 30 minutes after to go home. I could tell we were all pretty tensed up all week.

"This week, it's a much different experie

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