It was a dominating performance by the area teams during the 45th annual Max Evans Memorial Coss Country meet Saturday at the Ohio Caverns.
West Liberty-Salem’s Grace Adams, Reghan Bieleski and Katelyn Stapleton compete at the Max Evans Memorial Saturday at the Ohio Caverns. (EXAMINER PHOTOS | AARON LABATT)
The state-ranked West Liberty-Salem girls squad won in a blowout, while Benjamin Logan’s boys continue their surge by winning their race.
The Big Orange girls, who are ranked fourth in the latest Division III state poll, had five runners in the top eight to help fuel a 21-point first-place finish. New Bremen was runner-up with 58 and Kenton was third with 94.
“The combination of the heat and a hilly course made this probably the physically toughest race we’ll have all season,” said WL-Salem girls head coach Ann Vogel. “The girls responded well to the conditions, raced intelligently and really moved up the second half of the race. We’re thankful to call the Ohio Caverns our home course as it prepares us for the rigors of the postseason.”
The Raider boys have shown improvement every race and Saturday won comfortably with 59 points. The Big Orange boys were second with 74 points and Anna took third with 102 points.
“I was very pleased with our teams overall effort,” said BL boys head coach Kevin Butler. “It was a difficult day to race with how hot it was, but I felt like I our guys showed a lot of toughness to keep pushing to pass people.
“It could have been very easy to slow down or stay complacent with their individual places, but they wanted to see the team do well so to see them racing other guys was very encouraging moving forward.”
Complete story and more photos in Monday’s Examiner.
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