The West Liberty-Salem girls and boys cross country teams flexed their muscles on their home course Saturday by winning the Max Evans Memorial at the Ohio Caverns.
The Big Orange girls, who are the top ranked team in Division III, won with a perfect score of 15 by having the top five finishers.The Big Orange also had eight of the top 12 runners. New Bremen was runner-up with 65 points, Indian Lake took third with 74 points, Benjamin Logan finished in fourth with 122 points and Bellefontaine was fifth with 141 points.
The Big Orange boys, who are ranked eighth in Division II, won with 27 points and had five of the top 10 finishers. The Chieftains were runners-up with 61 points, M’burg was third with 79 points and the Raiders took fourth with 91 points. Triad finished in seventh with 176 points. The Laker boys did not score as a team.
It was an impressive finish by WL-Salem’s girls on the hilly course as they took the top five spots. Megan Adams won the race (19:19), Addison McAuley was runner-up (19:23), Ashley Yoder was third (19:57), Katelyn Stapleton was fourth (20:01) and Maddie Bahan was fifth (20:21).
Also turning in strong races for the Tigers were Taylor Kennedy in eighth (21:23), Mandy Weaver in ninth (21:33) and Claire Longshore in 12th (22:04). Rounding out the team were Izzy Wygal in 32nd (24:28), Maggie Davis in 33rd (24:29), Maria Henderson in 45th (26:00) and Dani Smith in 52nd (26:47).
Indian Lake saw top 20 finishes from Chloe Sparks in 13th (22:11), KaiLea Miller in 12th (22:17), Elayna Richardson in 16th (22:20) and Ella Wagner in 19th (22:46). Other top races came from Hannah Metzger in 22nd (23:05), Deborah Wells in 24th (23:26), Erika Wells in 26th (23:50) and Carlie Nickel in 28th (23:56).
Making up the rest of the Lakers were Kierra Saunders in 59th (27:55), Maggie Reese in 65th (28:57), Makayla Motter in 69th (30:06), Annie Braig in 72nd (30:25) and Eva Arney in 78th (40:09).
Dani Widmark highlighted Ben Logan with a seventh-place finish in 21:14. Finishing in the top half of the race for the Raiders were Malori Barnes in 27th (23:55), Kerry Copenhaver in 31st (24:07), Mylee Boysel in 34th (24:57) and Kendra Kennedy in 39th (25:26). The rest of the team saw Cora Watson in 46th (26:01), Tori Miller in 47th (26:21), Allie Fay in 49th (26:37), Sarah Folk in 55th (27:30), Libby Siefring in 57th (27:40) and McKenzee Roseburrough in 68th (29:57).
Bellefontaine was paced by the duo of Montanna Buck and Sophie Adelsberger with top 25 finishes. Buck led in 23rd (23:08) and Adelsberger finished in 25th (23:37), while Ella Reier came in 30th (24:01), Aubrey Hudson finished in 35th (25:04), Zoey Rister took 53rd (27:10) and Olivia Eader came in 74th (31:16).
Triad and Riverside each had one runner compete Saturday. The Cardinals’ Tabitha Gaier was 67th (29:39) and the Pirates’ Ava Klinger was 71st (30:10).
Boys Results
WL-Salem’s boys were powered by five top-10 finishes. Dylan Lauck won the boys race in 16:29 and Tate Yoder was runner-up in 16:38, Hayden Kennedy took fifth (17:53), Josh Spinner came in ninth (18:12) and Owen Harrison finished in 10th (18:43).
Finishing in the top 30 for the Tigers were Ayden Estep in 11th (18:27), Michael Jones in 14th (18:32), Joey LaRoche in 18th (18:48), Ian Maurice in 23rd (19:23), Ryan Henry in 28th (19:57) and Adam LaRoche in 30th (19:59). Rounding out the team were Mason Barger in 38th (20:47), Hayden Miller in 57th (22:34) and Maxwell McCombs in 70th (28:54).
Bellefontaine had three top 10 finishes led by Connor Skidmore in fourth (17:44). The other finishes came from Gannon Purcell in sixth (17:54) and Tony Stewart in eighth (17:59).
Making up the rest of the Chiefs were Patrick Donnelly in 19th (18:51), Ollie Moreland in 27th (19:47), Noah Connor in 56th (22:24), Nate Hardy in 60th (23:25), Alek Miller in 63rd (25:12) and Seth Taylor in 67th (25:46).
“We will try to make a late season push toward getting all of our squad healthy and peaking,” said BHS head coach Ben Davis. “We had two in the top five as freshmen today. It was nice seeing the team collect some hardware.”
Tucker Munz sparked Ben Logan’s boys with a third-place finish in a time of 17:44. Also racing for the Raiders were Blake Rhoades in 12th (18:28), Tayte Williamson in 17th (18:47), Andrew Hughes in 26th (19:40), Gabe Mooney in 45th (21:29), Yale Schiederer in 53rd (22:18) and Eli Rhodes in 58th (22:54).
For Triad, Wyatt Robison was 31st (19:59), Jacob Haser was 40th (21:11), Zane Robison was 47th (21:48), Klinton Driscoll was 48th (21:56) and Aaron Roy was 56th (22:26).
Indian Lake saw Grant McPherson finish in 34th (20:07), Jacob Huhn finish in 37th (20:17), Tony Cummins finish in 42nd (21:14) and Dawson Finfrock finish in 59th (23:09).