West Liberty-Salem’s top-ranked girls cross country team dominated again Saturday by running away with the Anna Rocket Invitational championship to conclude the regular-season racing schedule.
The Big Orange girls had four of the top five runners and had seven finish in the top 22 for a winning score of 25. Bellbrook was runner-up with 79 points and Botkins came in third with 107 points. Indian Lake finished in sixth with 151 points and Bellefontaine was eighth with 212 points.
Botkins edged Anna 68-69 to claim the boys 15-team race. Bellbrook took third with 86 points and Bellefontaine came in fourth with 112 points. Indian Lake’s boys finished in 12th with 354 points. WL-Salem’s boys did not race on Saturday.
Big Orange freshman standout Addison McAuley won the first race of her high school career Saturday. She placed first out of 131 runners with a time of 18:39 to lead WL-Salem.
Also placing in the top five were Ashley Yoder in second (18:57), Katelyn Stapleton in fourth (19:37) and Madison Bahan in fifth (19:42).
Other strong races for WL-S came from Taylor Kennedy in 15th (20:57), Claire Longshore in 19th (21:15) and Mandilyn Weaver in 22nd (21:32). Making up the rest of the team were Maria Henderson in 42nd (22:35), Maggie Davis in 53rd (23:00), Izzy Wygal in 63rd (23:29), Kenzie Bahan in 85th (24:51) and Dani Smith in 96th (26:02).
Ella Wagner powered Indian Lake’s girls in 24th (21:41). Other strong efforts were turned in by Elayna Richardson in 33rd (22:12), Deborah Wells in 34th (22:12.1), Chloe Sparks in 44th (22:45), Hannah Metzger in 55th (23:03) and Erika Wells in 56th (23:05).
Rounding out the Lady Lakers were Rachel Wahl in 66th (23:36), Carlie Nickel in 74th (24:23), Andi Miller in 112th (28:19), Maggie Reese in 117th (28:57), Annie Braig in 119th (29:24), Makayla Motter in 121st (29:30), Eva Carney in 127th (33:33) and Phoebe Brielmeier in 128th (35:48).
Leading Bellefontaine’s girls were Sophie Adelsberger in 37th (22:20) and Montanna Buck in 39th (22:24).
The rest of the Chiefs saw Ella Reier finish in 62nd (23:29), Aubrey Hudson in 71st (24:01), Zoey Rister in 90th (25:25), Olivia Eader in 114th (28:31) and Lilly Moody in 129th (36:22).
Riverside’s Ava Klingler also ran Saturday and finished in 88th (25:00).
BOYS RESULTS
Conner Skidmore paced the Chieftain boys with a sixth-place finish out of 131 runners in a time of 17:08, while Tony Stewart also had a strong race in 15th (17:33).
Also racing for BHS were Gavin Wilson in 27th (18:06), Justin Carper in 29th (18:07), Gannon Purcell in 36th (18:20), Patrick Donnelly in 56th (18:46), Ollie Moreland in 76th (19:35), Noah Conner in 106th (21:46), Nate Hardy in 110th (22:10) and Seth Taylor in 115th (22:40).
For the Laker boys, Jacob Huhn was 67th (19:20), Brant Parsell was 82nd (19:59), Tony Cummins in 90th (20:23), Brody Parsell in 92nd (20:31), Mason Beres was 94th (20:35) and Dawson Finfrock was 113th (22:29).
Raider runners take sixth at Harding Invite
Benjamin Logan’s boys and girls cross country teams both finished sixth Saturday at the Marion Harding Invitational to wrap up the regular season.
Liberty Benton won the boys nine-team meet with 39 points, Upper Sandusky was second with 62 points and Galion came in third with 86 points. The Raiders were sixth with 113 points.
Colonel Crawford beat Galion on a tie breaker 47-47 to win the girls seven-team race. Liberty-Benton came in third with 68 points. Ben Logan finished sixth with 138 points. Tucker Munz led the Raider boys with an eighth-place finish in a time of 16:10, while top 20 finihes came from Blake Rhoades came in 15th (18:32) and Tayte Williamson came in 17th (19:05).
The rest of the team saw Trevor Penwell finish in 31st (19:42), Andrew Hughes in 42nd (20:13), Eli Rhodes in 57th (21:41), Yale Schiederer in 59th (21:57) and Gabe Mooney in 66th (22:35).
Ben Logan’s girls were led by Dani Widmark who placed ninth with a time of 21:21. Other top finishes came from Kerry Copenhaver in 32nd (23:53), Malori Barnes in 34th (24:01), Mylee Boysel in 48th (25:29) and Kendra Kennedy in 49th (25:49).
Rounding out the squad were Libby Siefring in 53rd (26:30), Allie Fay in 55th (27:05), Cora Watson in 56th (27:07), Sarah Folk in 57th (27:17), Tori Miller in 62nd (27:42) and McKenzee Roseburrough in 70th (30:03).
Triad races at M’burg Invite
Triad’s boys cross country team finished sixth at the William Saxbe Invitational on Saturday held at Mechanicsburg High School.
The host Indians won the meet with 35 points and Urbana beat North Union in a tie breaker 66-66 to take third. The Cardinals were sixth with 140 points.
North Union won the girls race with 43 points and Mechanicsburg was runner-up with 63 points. Triad’s girls did not score as a team.
Wyatt Robison led Triad’s boys with a sixth-place finish (19:58), Tavin Yorgason was 25th (20:33), Jacob Haser was 33rd (21:10), Zane Robison was 40th (21:31), Klinton Driscoll was 45th (22:11) and Aaron Roy was 48th (22:21).
For the Cardinal girls, Shalyn Smiles was fifth (21:54), Aliandra Yorgason was 42nd (28:07) and Tabitha Gaier was 43rd (28:16).