CEDARVILLE – The West Liberty-Salem girls cross country team won its fifth consecutive Division III district title on Saturday, qualifying for this Saturday’s regional meet.
The D-III girls race was a combined two-district event with the top two teams winning district titles and the third and fourth place teams receiving district runner-up honors.
The Big Orange tied with Fort Loramie in the final scoring with 53 points with Fort Loramie earning first place on the sixth runner tie-breaker. Mechanicsburg placed 11th with 336 points.
WL-S’s Megan Adams and Ashley Yoder teamed up to take the first and second individual spots with Adams winning the race in a personal best time of 18:26.5 and Yoder placing second in 18:57.8.
Addison McAuley cracked the top 10 placing eighth (19:55.7). Also placing for the Big Orange were Taylor Kennedy 22nd (20:55.8), Mandilyn Weaver 27th with a personal best (21:10.8), Claire Longshore 31st (21:19.6) and Anna Knox 62nd (22:55.6).
At the Division II girls district meet on Saturday, Graham’s Hailey Nash qualified for the regional by placing 10th in 19:44.8.
WL-S, MHS boys 2nd
The West Liberty-Salem boys cross country team placed second at the Division II district meet on Saturday to advance to this Saturday’s regional meet.
It’s the 12th straight year the Tigers have qualified for the regional, and the third in a row in Division II.
WL-S’s top runner, Dylan Lauck, missed the district meet due to illness.
Results for the Tigers were Owen Harrison 16:38.5 4th, Tate Yoder 16:47.2 7th, Troy Bradley 17:02.5 14th, Asher Knox 17:05.0 17th, Ayden Estep 17:30.6 28th, Micah Smith 17:42.3 33rd and Quentin Rudolph 17:56.9 37th.
“These kids are gamers with six guys setting career personal bests. Hopefully, the team will be at full strength (this) week and will be in a position to compete for a regional title against an extremely talented field,” said WL-S Coach Mike Louden.
Also in Division II, Graham’s Aiden Oburn qualified for the regional by placing 24th in 17:25.9.
In Division III, the Mechanicsburg boys team placed second for the first time in school history and qualified for the regional.
For the Indians, Will Negley was 15th in 17:17.3, Matthew Westfall was 27th in 17:44.0, Joshua Porter was 30th in 17:45.8, Luke Bryant was 34th in 17:52.3, Sean Shultz was 42nd in 18:11.2, Garrett Durham was 84th in 19:01.9 (84th) and Tyler Hennigan was 146th in 21:44.0.
This is the first time in school history that Mechanicsburg has sent an entire team on to the regional meet.
The Division II and III regional meets will be held on Saturday at Troy.
Junior high
The West-Liberty Salem cross country teams completed their season running at the OHSAA 7th and 8th grade invitational hosted at Fortress Obetz.
The girls were 6th out of 15 teams. Hattie Jacobs led the Tigers finishing 8th (13:07) out of 140 runners.
The boys were 4th out of 21 teams. Brevin Louden led the Tigers finishing 5th (11:53) out of 185 runners.
For the Mechanicsburg girls, Clair Rodgers was first in 12:45.7.
For the Mechanicsburg boys, C.C. Shultz was 10th in 11:27.6.
Graham junior high runner Garrett Wallen placed 11th (11:43.46) out of 107 runners at the Ohio Middle School Cross Country Championships on Sunday at Dublin Jerome High School. His sister, Addison Wallen, competed in the 6th Grade and Under Race and finished 16th (13:24.44) out of 215 runners.
