The district champion New Richmond Lady Lions pose with their trophy on Saturday, Oct. 18.

The district champion New Richmond Lady Lions pose with their trophy on Saturday, Oct. 18.
By Chris Chaney
Sun staff

A cool, overcast day at Voice of America Park in West Chester gave way to a trip to the Oct. 25 regional cross country meet at Troy High School for both the New Richmond squads and seven other local runners.

The New Richmond girls’ team was district champions for the second time in three years while the boys’ team advanced by virtue of a third-place finish in the District A race.

“It was chilly, but it was similar to last year minus the rain, so the kids had experience from last year,” New Richmond head coach Rylan Shebesta said of the conditions his teams ran under. “I knew going into (the girls’ race) it would be close. We only beat Madeira by one point, they were tough. Everything kind of came together and the girls ran well considering some of their injuries. I think that this was our best time this year.”

“I was really pleased with the (boys’) race. I knew we could possibly get second, but it would have had to been a combination of us running really well and Taylor not having their best day. I was really happy that my guys were able to beat Blanchester as easily as they did because Blanchester was really close at our league meet.”

The Lions’ runners were paced by Claire Burns and Bobby Bingham, respectively. For Burns, her time of 19:55.28 was good enough for first place in her race and second overall in Division II.

“Claire ran pretty well,” Shebesta said. “Her shins had been bothering her and even though she won her meet pretty easily, she said she didn’t push through as much at the end.”

Bingham’s time of 16:58.68 was good enough for fourth in his meet and was the fifth fastest for the DII boys.

Shebesta said for either team to qualify for the state meet in two weeks would be a tall task, so he and his teams are setting goals that they can control. The coach said that both teams are hoping to run their best times of the season and go from there.

Individually, Shebesta said Burns has a good chance to get into the top-16 at Troy. Currently, her time puts her around 20th overall, but a higher caliber of runners at the regional meet as well as some treatment could allow her to punch a ticket to National Trail Raceway, the site of the state meet, just east of Columbus.

For Bingham, Shebesta said the senior will have to knock about 20 seconds off of his district time to qualify — a tough feat, but not one that is completely out of the question.

Burns and the Lady Lions will have two familiar faces running alongside them at the regional meet as Goshen’s pair of seniors, Courtney Turner and Brittany Clark, qualified individually. Turner finished in ninth place in her district meet, running a 21:06.73. Clark was 11th, posting a 21:27.90 time.

Bethel-Tate’s Allison Parks finished in 14th place, two spots out of qualifying.

In the Division III race at Voice of America Park, three Williamsburg runners and two Felicity-Franklin individuals qualified for the regional meet, while some others barely missed qualifying.

Burg’s K.C. Jones came in seventh place to solidify his spot at the regional. Teammate Nathan Webb grabbed the 16th-place position to nip Felicity’s Bradley Elkins for the last individual spot.

The Cardinals’ Jared Boeckmann came in 11th place and earned a spot in this weekend’s race.

On the girls’ side, Felicity’s Kaitlin Sharp placed ninth with a time of 21:25.27 to move on and Williamsburg’s Heather McIntosh finished in 14th place, 27 seconds behind Sharp.

No local runners from Division I qualified on to regionals. Milford’s AJ Erdaty was the closest, finishing in 20th place, four spots out of the qualifiers.

The regional meets will take place on Saturday, Oct. 25 at Troy High School. The Division III boys will race at 11 a.m., the Division II boys will follow them at 11:45 a.m. with the Division III girls racing at 1:30 p.m. and the Division II girls racing after that at 2:15 p.m.