West Liberty-Salem’s girls cross country team recently moved up to the top spot in the Division III state poll and showcased why Saturday as they dominated the Cedarville Invitational.
The Big Orange girls had five runners finish in the top six and won the nine-team meet with 20 points. Caroll, which is ranked 28th in the Division II state poll, was second with 79 points and Dayton Christian was third with 111 points. Indian Lake’s girls came in sixth with 140 points.
In the boys 11-team race, Caroll, which is ranked sixth in the Division II state poll, won with 36 points. Cedarville, which is the top ranked team in Division III, was runner-up with 49 points and WL-Salem’s boys came in third with 60 points. Indian Lake finished ninth with 254 points.
“This was an overall solid team outing competing against two of the best teams in the state,” said WL-Salem boys head coach Mike Louden. “We’re obviously a little disappointed in the overall result, but I thought we definitely raced better collectively than we did last week.
“We still need to tighten the gap between our two and three runners. If we can do that we will be in great shape the second half of the season. We had several outstanding performances with nine guys setting career personal bests and everyone else having season bests.”
WL-Salem’s girls were powered by a strong series of high finishes. Megan Adams was runner-up (18:49), Addison McAuley was third (18:59), Katelyn Stapleton was fourth (19:22), Ashley Yoder was fifth (19:27) and Madison Bahan was sixth (19:47). The Tigers also had top 20 finishes from Taylor Kennedy in 15th (21:14), Mandilyn Weaver in 16th (21:26) and Claire Longshore in 18th (21:44).
Rounding out the girls were Maria Henderson in 31st (22:26), Maggie Davis in 40th (22:45), Izzy Wygal in 49th (23:29), Kenzie Bahan in 66th (25:18) and Dani Smith in 71st (25:55).
WL-Salem’s boys were spearheaded by Dylan Lauck and Tate Yoder on Saturday. Lauck was runner-up (16:00) and Yoder placed third (16:13). Finishing in the top half of the race were Hayden Kennedy in 16th (17:33), Owen Harrison in 19th (17:40), Michael Jones in 20th (17:45), Josh Spinner in 21st (17:52) and Ayden Estep in 25th (18:01).
Also in action for the Tigers were Ian Maurice in 32nd (18:32), Joey LaRoche in 34th (18:38), Adam LaRoche in 49th (19:18), Mason Barger in 55th (19:40), Hayden Miller in 85th (21:31) and Maxwell McCombs in 119th (29:00).
KaiLea Miller sparked the Indian Lake girls in 17th (21:39) with other top finishes coming from Chloe Sparks in 26th (22:09), Erika Wells in 34th (22:31), Elayna Richardson in 35th (22:35) and Ella Wagner in 38th (22:43). Other Lakers racing were Deborah Wells in 42nd (22:52), Hannah Metzger in 45th (23:05), Carlie Nickel in 53rd (23:44), Kierra Saunders in 74th (26:53), Maggie Reese in 81st (27:42), Annie Braig in 82nd (27:44), Makayla Motter in 87th (29:05) and Eva Carney in 96th (38:12).
For the Laker boys, Brant Parsell was 59th (19:45), Jacob Huhn was 60th (19:48), Grant McPherson was 63rd (19:52), Brody Parsell was 67th (20:23), Mason Beres was 71st (20:36), Tony Cummins was 77th (21:01), Vincent Wilson was 84th (21:30) and Dawson Finfrock was 112th (24:17).
Indian Lake races again Saturday at WL-Salem’s Max Evans Memorial at the Ohio Caverns.
BHS girls third, boys fourth at Graham
Bellefontaine’s boys and girls cross country teams both gave strong performance Saturday at the Graham Invitational. The Chieftains girls finished third out of 12 teams and the boys came in fourth out of 17 teams after a tiebreaker.
Bethel claimed the boys meet with 73 points and Jonathan Alder was second with 82 points. Covington and Bellefontaine both finished with 92 points, but the Buccs took third on a sixth-man tiebreaker. Ben Logan finished in fifth with 161 points and Triad was 15th with 380 points.
“We were within striking distance of the top team in the CBC, Alder. We have a month to eliminate the 10 points. A huge bounce back race for our team from last weekend. Conner joins our top 10 list for a Chieftain at Graham as 6th fastest ever.”
State-ranked Jonathan Alder dominated the girls meet with 22 points, Miami East was second with 121 points and Bellefontaine edged Mechanicsburg for third 143-144. Ben Logan came in fifth with 153 points.
Connor Skidmore and Tony Stewart powered Bellefontaine’s boys with top 10 finishes. Skidmore placed third (16:58) and Stewart finished in ninth (17:27). Gannon Purcell also had a strong finish in 17th (17:42).
Other Chieftains racing were Patrick Donnelly in 27th (18:03), Justin Carper in 36th (18:20), Ollie Moreland in 60th (19:10), Seth Taylor in 93rd (20:57) and Noah Conner in 110th (21:54).
Tucker Munz was Ben Logan’s best finisher in eighth with a time of 17:25. Making up the rest of the team were Tayte Williamson in 28th (18:05), Blake Rhoades in 30th (18:06), Trevor Penwell in 42nd (18:31), Andrew Hughes was 53rd (18:51), Gabe Mooney was 91st (20:53), Yale Scheiderer in 103rd (21:19) and Eli Rhodes in 116th (22:30)
For Triad’s boys, Joe Ferguson was 55th (18:54), Wyatt Robison was 72nd (19:34), Tavin Yorgason was 77th (19:50), Jacob Haser was 82nd (20:19), Klinton Driscoll was 105th (21:25) and Zane Robison was 108th (21:35).
Bellefontaine also had a few runners compete in the junior varsity race. That included Nate Hardy in 23rd (21:48), Micah Woolf in 32nd (24:20), Payton Plikerd in 35th (25:22) and Alek Miller in 36th (25:27).
Bellefontaine’s girls were sparked by Montanna Buck in 20th (22:28) and Sophie Adelsberger in 24th (22:55). Other strong races came from Ella Reier in 30th (23:24), Aubrey Hudson in 42nd (24:31) and Zoey Rister in 59th (25:22).
The rest of the team saw Avery Hankins in 85th (28:37), Olivia Eader in 86th (28:45) and Lilly Moody in 106th (35:11).
Dani Widmark highlighted Ben Logan’s girls performance by placing fourth (20:43). Finishing in the front half of the race for the Raiders were Malori Barnes in 33rd (24:12), Mylee Boysel in 40th (24:24), Cora Watson in 54th (25:03) and Tori Miller in 55th (25:04).
Rounding out the team were Allie Fay in 65th (25:50), Madelyn Wagnild in 73rd (26:49), Libby Siefring in 76th (27:10), Sarah Folk in 78th (27:28) and McKenzee Roseburrough in 93rd (30:39).
Shalyn Smiles led Triad’s girls in 12th (21:26), while Tabitha Gaier came in 77th (27:27) and Aliandra Yorgason came in 80th (27:41).
Riverside had one girls compete with Ava Klingler, who finished in 62nd with a time of 25:29.
Bellefontaine, Ben Logan, Triad and Riverside all race Saturday at the Ohio Caverns Invitational.