West Liberty-Salem’s boys and girls cross country teams started the postseason in impressive fashion Saturday as they both captured Division III district titles at Cedarville University.
West Liberty-Salem’s girls and boys cross country teams won Division III district titles Saturday at Cedarville University. (SUBMITTED PHOTOS)
The district races were ran as “combined districts” with the top two teams being declared district champions.
For the boys, the top eight teams advanced to the regionals and runners finishing in the top 32 that were not on a qualifying team also moved on to the regionals.
The WL-S boys, ranked third in the latest Division III state coaches poll, won their first district crown since 2018 and the program’s 16th overall.
WL-S was the first overall team with 61 points. Botkins was next with 73 to also earn a district title.
Owen Harrison led the Big Orange boys by finishing in fourth place (16:44.6). Asher Knox was right behind in fifth (16:44.8) and Gary Wallen was 10th (17:10.2). Dylan King was 19th (17:36.4) for the WL-S, Troy Bradley placed 23rd (17:43), Brevin Louden was 30th (17:55.3) and Michael Jones was 34th (18:09.6).
The WL-S boys will run at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Division III regional boys race at Troy.
The Big Orange girls, ranked fifth in the latest Division III state poll, won its sixth consecutive regional title.
Fort Loramie finished first overall with 54 points and WL-S had 68 points.
Botkins (126) and Versailles (147) placed third and fourth with both teams receiving district runner-up titles. There were 18 total teams and 149 runners in the race with the top seven finishing teams qualifying for the 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 followed by Gwen McCullough in 21st (21:13), Breece Gullet in 24th (21:18), Taylor Kennedy in 29th (21:39) and Teagan Boyd in 37th (22:15).
“We’re excited to bring home another district title,” said WL-S girls head coach Ann Vogel. “We ran a solid race against thirdranked Fort Loramie, and we definitely have room for improvement.
We’re excited to have another shot at them next week.”
The Big Orange girls will run at Troy on Saturday in the regional meet, with the top three teams advancing to state.
BHS boys, IL and BL girls headed to regional meet
Bellefontaine’s boys cross country team and the Indian Lake and Benjamin Logan girls squads earned regional berths for their efforts at the Division II district meet in Cedarville on Saturday.
For the Division II boys race, the top eight teams and runners finishing in the top 32 earned spots in next Saturday’s regional meet at Troy High School.
The district races were combined to make a “super district” with the top two teams being declared district champs and the third and fourth teams earning runner-up honors.
Carroll was first overall with 38 points and Oakwood was next with 60 points. Eaton was third with 93 points and the Chieftains were fourth with 127 points.
“We avenged several mid-season defeats at the district meet,” said BHS boys head coach Ben Davis. “The team ran 27 places better than our premeet projection. We did a nice job of moving up throughout the entire race.
It is great to see the kids so excited. Their trophy dates back to early June sweat equity, and in some cases years of hard work. We still have goals to achieve next week at Troy. It was a great day overall.”
Gavin Wilson paced the Chiefs by finishing eighth with a personal best of 16:51. Tony Stewart was close behind in 11th (16:56) and Hayden Maus finished 17th (17:27).
Also for the Chiefs, Seth Taylor was 36th (18:08), Elias Abrego finished 56th (18:33), Ollie Moreland was 75th (19:17) and Ryan Alexander finished 128th (21:19).
Benjamin Logan finished 14th in the boys race and Indian Lake was 17th.
The Raiders were led by sophomore Eric Hughes, who ran a new personalbest time of 17:53 to finish 30th and earn a spot in the regional meet. He will compete at 1 p.m. next Saturday at Troy High School.
Eli Rhodes finished 48th for the Raiders in a new PR of 18:21, Tyler Shoopman was 57th (18:34), Parker Sutherly finished 114th in a new PR of 20:42, Ethan VanWinkle was 120th (20:59) and Landon Zehner was 137th (21:52).
For Indian Lake’s boys team, Grant McPherson was 45th (18:19), Brant Parsell was 82nd (19:26), Tony Cummins finished 86th (19:43), Brody Parsell took 101st (20:16), Heath Wilson was 104th (20:26), Titus Kelly finished 118th (20:54) and Vince Wilson was 123rd (21:06).
IL, BL girls moving on
Indian Lake and Benjamin Logan both punched tickets to the Division II girls regional after finishing in the top eight at Saturday’s district meet.
The Lakers were sixth overall with 203 points and the Raiders were eighth (262). Bellefontaine also competed and finished 16th with 399 points.
Leading the Lakers was freshman standout Reagan Rash, who was fifth in a time of 19:48.8.
Also for the Lakers, Evie Wagner was 36th (21:40), KaiLea Miller finished 48th (22:30), Elayna Richardson was 51st (22:42), Hannah Metzger was 68th (23:22), Makayla Motter finished 121st (27:02) and Maggie Reese was 133rd (28:11).
Ben Logan was led by Georgia Bates, who finished 24th in a time of 20:58.1.
Estella Wenger was 31st (21:15.7), Mylee Boysel finished 44th (22:17.1), Scarlett Elliott was 75th (23:59.9), Hadley Boysel was 95th (24:58.3), Malori Barnes finished 105th (25:57.9) and Kendra Kennedy was 107th (25:36.7).
Montanna Buck led the Lady Chiefs in 41st (22:06.1). She was followed by Kailyn Newman in 74th (23:54.4), Ella Reier in 84th (24:38.6), Aubrey Hudson in 87th (24:47.3), Mia DeLong was 127th (27:45), Zoey Rister finished 132nd (28:06) and Brianne Sechrest was 134th (28:12.6).