Area cross country teams competed at the Southwest District Meet held at Cedarville University Saturday.
The West Liberty-Salem varsity boys, who were #3 in this week’s DIII OATCCC State Poll, captured its first District title since 2018 and the program’s 16th overall.
Finishing for the Tigers: Sr. Owen Harrison 4th, 16:44.6; So. Asher Knox 5th, 16:44.8; Fr. Gary Wallen 10th, 17:10.2; Fr. Dylan King 19th, 17:36.4; So. Troy Bradley 23rd, 17:43.0; Fr. Brevin Louden 30th, 17:55.3; Sr. Michael Jones 34th, 18:09.6
WL-S will compete in the DIII Regional meet held at Troy on Saturday, October 29th at 11:00 a.m.
The West Liberty-Salem varsity girls, who ranked #5 in this week’s DIII state poll won its sixth consecutive District title.
The Lady Tigers compete in a super district that combines two districts into one race with the first and second-place teams winning district titles and the third and fourth-place teams receiving district runner-up titles.
Fort Loramie won the overall team title with 54 points, followed by WLS with 68 points. Botkins was third with 126 points and Versailles was fourth with 147. Both teams received district runner-up titles.
There were 18 total teams and 149 runners in the race with the top 7 finishing teams qualifying for next week’s Regional meet.
Junior Ashley Yoder led the Big Orange with a sixth place finish (20:15.7). Malia Miller (20:34) and Addison McAuley (20:37) finished 11th and 12th respectively followed by Gwen McCullough 21st (21:13), Breece Gullet 24th (21:18), Taylor Kennedy 29th (21:39) and Teagan Boyd 37th (22:15).
“We’re excited to bring home another district title,” said WL-S head coach Ann Vogel. “We ran a solid race against #3 state-ranked Fort Loramie, and we definitely have room for improvement. We’re excited to have another shot at them next week.”
The Lady Tigers will run at the DIII Southwest Regional meet Saturday at Troy Stadium. The top three teams will qualify for a trip to the OHSAA state meet.
The Indian Lake varsity girls placed 6th as a team in the DII District race with 203 points and qualified to the Regional meet.
For the Lady Lakers, Reagan Rash placed 5th with a time of 19:48 to qualify individually. Evie Wagner was 36th (21:40), KaiLea Miller 48th (22:30), Elayna Richardson was 51st (22:42), and Hannah Metzger was 68th (23:22), Makayla Motter was 121st (27:02), and Maggie Reese was 133rd (28:11).
The Indian Lake girls will run at Troy on Saturday.
The Laker boys placed 17th out of 22 teams.
Grant McPherson paced Indian Lake with a 45th place finish (18:19), Brant Parsell was 82nd (19:26), Tony Cummins was 86th (19:43), Brody Parsell was 101st (20:16), Heath Wilson was 104th (20:26), Titus Kelly was 118th (20:54), and Vince Wilson was 123rd (21:06).
The Benjamin Logan varsity girls placed 8th at the District meet and qualified to the Regional meet.
Georgia Bates led the Lady Raiders with her 24th-place finish in a field of 145 runners. She covered the rolling 3.1-mile course in a time of (20:58). Close behind was Estella Wenger who finished in 31st place finish in a time of (21:15). Completing the scoring were Mylee Boysel 44th (22:17), Scarlett Elliott 75th (23:59), Hadley Boysel 95th (24:58), Malori Barnes 105th (25:27) and Kendra Kennedy 107th (25:36).
“The Lady Raiders ran a strong race to achieve their goal of qualifying as a team for the regional meet,” says head coach Mike Coder. “The Raiders have qualified many individuals over the years for the regional meet but the last girls’ team to qualify was in 1993. The team was excited to break this drought and raise the standard this season.”
The Regional meet will be held at Troy on Saturday, October 29. The girl’s DII race will take place at 1:45 p.m.
The Benjamin Logan varsity boys competed at the DII Southwest District meet and finished 14th overall.
Leading the Raiders was sophomore Eric Hughes who ran a new PR time of 17:53 to finish 30th overall and qualify for the regional meet as an individual.
Junior Eli Rhodes ran a great race to set a new PR of 18:21 and finished 48th overall. Freshman Tyler Shoopman ran a solid race of 18:34 to finish 57th. Freshman Parker Sutherly stepped in for an injured teammate and ran a new PR of 20:42 to finish 114th. Freshman Ethan VanWinkle crossed in 20:59 for 120th and Sophomore Landon Zehner finished in 21:52 for 137th.
Hughes will run again Saturday at 1:00 p.m. at Troy in the Regional meet.
The Bellefontaine varsity boys punched their ticket to the Regional meet with a 4th place finish at Districts.
The Chiefs place three runners in the top 17. Gavin Wilson was 8th, Tony Stewart 11th, and Hayden Maus was 17th.
Other finishers for Bellefontaine were Seth Taylor 36th, Elias Abrego 56th, Ollie Moreland 75th, and Ryan Alexander 128th.
The Chieftain varsity girls finished 16th at the District meet.
Montana Buck led Bellefontaine coming in 41st with a time of 22:06. Kailyn Newman was 74th (23:54), Ella Reier 84th (24:38), Aubrey Hudson 87th (24:47), Mia DeLong 127th (27:45), Zoey Rister 132nd (28:06), and Brianne Sechrest 134th (28:12).
The Graham Cross Country teams participated in the District Meet at Cedarville.
The varsity girls finished 17th out of 20 teams.
Kelsey Demarco led the Lady Falcons placing 32nd (21:22.1), and qualified to the Regional meet.
Other finishers for Graham:
Taylor Aldredge 21:59.0 (63rd)
Ella Putterbaugh 25:39.5 (108th)
Ella Parke 25:59.4 (112th)
Ivy Hatfield 27:03.1 (122nd)
Grace Smith 27:08.9 (123rd)
Eliza Blosser 28:17.2 (130th)
The Falcon boys finished 12th out of 22 teams and were led by Cayden Bonham who finished 22nd (17:40.1) and qualified to the Regional meet.
Also finishing for Graham:
Ayden Rudolf 18:35.9 (59th)
Ashton Aldredge 19:03.7 (69th)
Jack Bonham 19:13.2 (72nd)
Sebastian Bowers 20:09.5 (96th)
Carter Smith 20.25.1 (103rd)
Brayden Crooks 20:38.9 (112th)
