A tough course and even tougher weather conditions didn’t phase West Liberty-Salem’s boys and girls cross country teams Saturday at the 49th annual Max Evans Memorial at the Ohio Caverns.
The state-ranked Big Orange squads both won after thunder storms came through the area and delayed the race for an hour. The Tigers also claimed the individual winners of each race.
The WL-Salem boys, who are ranked fifth in the Division II state poll, claimed first with 29 points and had the top three individual runners.
“It was a great team win for our program, especially coming at our own invitational,” said WL-Salem boys head coach Mike Louden. “I thought the guys did an amazing job battling the adverse conditions today.
“As a team, we’re right where we need to be heading into the
last few weeks of the regular season. If we can continue to stay focused, humble and healthy, great things will happen for this group. We just have to continue doing what got us to where we’re at.”
Bellefontaine’s boys provided some local excitement battling the Tigers, but settled for second with 51 points. Wayne came in third with 171 points, Benjamin Logan was fourth with 175 points. Triad finished 12th with 259 points and Indian Lake took 13th with 270 points.
The Big Orange girls, who are ranked third in the Division III state poll, also won the meet with 29 points and had the top three finishers. Kenton was runner-up with 80 points. Bellefontaine’s girls finished fifth with 104 points, Ben Logan was sixth with 158 points and Indian Lake came in seventh with 183 points.
Tiger standout Dylan Lauck blazed across the hills of the Ohio Caverns grounds to win the boys race out of 140 runners with a time of 16:32.1. Grace Adams also displayed some gutsy running for the Big Orange by winning the girls race out of 98 runners with a time of 19:52.9.
WL-Salem’s boys saw an impressive one-two-three punch on Saturday. Lauck’s win high-lighted the team, while Noah Smith was runner-up (16:53.0) and Tate Yoder was third (17:02.8). Josh Spinner also gave a strong effort coming in in ninth (17:47.4).
“It all started up front with Dylan, Noah and Tate all having outstanding races,” said Louden. “Any time you can go 1, 2, 3 up front the team is really going to benefit. We also had several other guys have solid races today despite the course being challenging.”
Also finishing in the top 40 for the Big Orange boys were Hayden Kennedy in 14th (18:19.3), Andrew Kimball in 22nd (18:48.6), Gavin Harrison in 25th (18:52.6), Michael Jones in 26th (19:00.4) and Ayden Estep in 38th (19:32.8).
Rounding out the Tigers line-up were Ian Maurice in 48th (20:01.1), Owen Harrison in 61st (20:24.1), Adam LaRoche in 64th (20:29.5), Hayden Miller in 119th (23:19.5) and Cade Clerico in 120th (23:19.9).
Bellefontaine was sparked by three top-eight finishes. Those came from Nate Murphy in fourth (17:11.4), Garrett Jenkins in sixth (17:29.4) and Connor Skidmore in eighth (17:42.8).
Other top finishes for the BHS boys came from Patrick Donnelly in 16th (18:34.9), Gavin Wilson in 17th (18:35.1), Evan Kauffman in 20th (18:45.0) and Jacob Engroff-Meyer in 33rd (19:20.4).
Finishing in the top 100 for BHS were Brandon Basillio in 68th (20:39.8), Micah Woolf in 69th (20:41.4), Carter Snapp in 71st (20:44.4), Joe Eckhoff in 74th (20:53.4), Neil Kauffman in 81st (21:22.2), Ethan Morales in 85th (21:36.5), Kyle Carper in 96th (21:57.4) and Justin Carper in 97th (21:57.6).
“We had several positives on the day,” said BHS boys head coach Ben Davis. “We placed five runners ahead of the third-place team Wayne’s best runner. Micah, Nate Hardy and Kyle did a nice job earning their season bests.”
Rounding out the Chiefs were Levon Howard in 107th (22:22.9), Nate Hardy in 121st (23:21.2), Declan Shannon in 123rd (23:24.3), Jaxon Sopher in 139th (39:35.4) and Ethan Murphy in 140th (39:36.0).
For Ben Logan, Blake Rhoades was 21st (18:45.7), Tayte Williamson was 27th (19:05.9), Noland King was 31st (19:15.2), Andrew Hughes was 44th (19:50.6), Montgomery Smith was 63rd (20:27.5), Yale Scheiderer was 73rd (20:46.4) and Parker Osborn was 114th (22:51.0).