West Liberty-Salem’s girls cross country team secured its seventh consecutive Ohio Heritage Conference championship, while junior standout Dylan Lauck set a school record in the boys race Saturday at Cedarville University.
The Big Orange girls, the top ranked team in Division III, had a perfect score of 15 by having the top five finishers in their race. They also had 10 runners finish in the top 20. Cedarville was runner-up with 64 points and Mechanicsburg came in third with 101 points. Triad did not score as a team.
“The girls love running on that course so there is some added excitement,” said WL-Salem girls head coach Ann Vogel. “They wanted to see if they could improve on their times from an earlier race there, and they did. We were also the first team to earn a perfect score in the OHC at the high school level so that was nice.”
It was a close battle between two state-ranked squads in the boys race. Cedarville, the top-ranked team in Division III, edged WL-Salem, the ninth ranked team in Division II, by a 26-29 score to win the OHC boys championship. Mechanicsburg came in third with 89 points, Greenon was fourth with 131 points and Triad took fifth with 153 points.
“We were outstanding today despite not winning,” said WL-Salem boys head coach Mike Louden. “The team ran their best race of the season and nearly knocked off Cedarville. It’s the first time in my coaching career I can honestly say I’m proud of a team finishing second. The poise and confidence we ran with today will pay off for the remainder of the postseason.”
The Big Orange had both of the individual race winners. Junior Dylan Lauck added an extra highlight by setting a school record with his winning time of 15:42.4. Lauck’s time breaks the 32-year old mark of 15:48 set by Kevin Conkle in 1988.
Sophomore Megan Adams won the girls race with a first-place time of 18:52.
“Dylan broke a 32-year old school record, which was fantastic,” said Louden. “We had individual performances from several of the guys that we needed to nearly pull off the upset.”
Adams led WL-Salem’s girls with her win, while helping fill out the top five were Ashley Yoder in second (18:57), Katelyn Stapleton in third (19:07), Addison McAuley in fourth (19:16) and Madison Bahan in fifth (19:21).
Also finishing in the top 20 for the Tigers were Taylor Kennedy in 10th (21:16), Claire Longshore in 11th (21:19), Mandilyn Weaver in 15th (21:55), Maria Henderson in 17th (22:09) and Maggie Davis in 20th (22:49). Others racing were Lilly Smith in 22nd (23:11), Kenzie Bahan in 28th (23:53) and Dani Smith in 40th (25:25).
In addition to Lauck, the Big Orange boys had six other runners finish in the top 12. Tate Yoder placed third (16:21), Michael Jones placed seventh (17:13), Hayden Kennedy placed eighth (17:21), Owen Johnson placed 10th (17:26), Josh Spinner finished in 11th (17:39) and Ayden Estep came in 12th (17:40).
Rounding out the boys are Joey LaRoche in 21st (18:24), Ian Maurice in 25th (18:50), Adam LaRoche in 31st (19:23), Ryan Henry in 38th (20:01), Mason Barger in 40th (20:11) and Maxwell McCombs in 65th (27:37).
For Triad’s boys, Joe Ferguson was 23rd (18:40), Wyatt Robison was 27th (19:05), Klinton Driscoll was 41st (20:19), Zane Robison was 43rd (20:31), Tavin Yorgason was 46th (20:54) and Jacob Haser was 49th (21:13).
The Cardinal girls had three runners in action. Shalyn Smiles had a strong race in ninth (20:44), while Tabitha Gaier was 41st (25:37) and Aliandra Yorgason was 44th (25:58).
WL-Salem and Triad race again Saturday in the district meet at Cedarville University.