By Chris Chaney
Sun staff
The Clermont County cross country season officially came to a close on Saturday, Oct. 25 at Troy High School as both New Richmond teams and the six other competing local runners were unable to crack the state qualifying standard.
Each race taking place at Troy, just north of Dayton, allowed the top-four teams and those individuals finishing in the top-16 to advance to this weekend’s state meet at National Trail Raceway in Hebron.
The New Richmond girls’ team, which won their district race and featured individual district champion Claire Burns, finished in ninth place out of the 16 teams at the regional.
“I think the girls ran pretty well as a group,” New Richmond head coach Rylan Shebesta said. “We were hoping to get into the top-10 and we were able to do that.”
Burns finished in 23rd place overall with a time of 20:31.30, just over a half-minute behind the 16th-place finisher, Taylor Broermann of Eaton. Burns has been suffering from shin splints and they bothered her enough that she considered stopping in the middle of the race. Her coach said it was a testament to her will and ability that she was able to finish and do so as the second-fastest runner from the Southwest district.
Shelbi Simpson, a sophomore for the Lady Lions finished in 33rd, Taryn Rupp finished in 71st, Emily Belmont was 84th, Grace Hauserman was 95th, Zoe Crabtree was 104th and Anna Bennett was 122nd.
Courtney Turner, a senior from Goshen, finished the race in 45th place, running a 21:18.52. The Lady Warriors’ Brittany Clark did not compete.
The New Richmond boys’ team was not concerned with trying to win their regional, instead putting their onus on an improved average and overall time. Unfortunately, Shebesta said the course ran a little slower than he would have hoped and the Lions added a few seconds to their regional-qualifying time.
Senior Bobby Bingham rounded out his career with a 32nd-place finish. He ran a 17:18.14, which was just over 40 seconds out of 16th place.
“Bobby’s time wasn’t what he wanted, but out of the runners from our district he finished fourth and beat the kid who won the other district,” Shebesta said. “His time coming in projected him to finish in the 40-somethings, so to get into the low 30s was good.”
Bingham’s teammates Luke Glenn and Charlie Spicker were 94th and 95th, respectively, while Daniel Stoy, Darik Page, Silas O’Dell and Carter Light finished consecutively from 116th to 119th.
As a team, the Lions finished 16th.
Earlier in the day, in the Division III races, a trio of Williamsburg Wildcats and a pair of Felicity-Franklin Cardinals were unable to advance out of the regional round.
Felicity’s Jared Boeckmann was the top local finisher in the race, posting a 17:50.83 to finish in 35th place. Boeckmann’s time was 50 seconds slower than the last individual qualifier, Charlie Jordan of Mariemont.
Burg’s KC Jones was the next highest finisher at the district meet, carding a seventh-place finish, but the deeper talent pool at regionals pushed the sophomore back to 53rd. Teammate Nathan Webb, a senior, finished in 77th place with a time of 18:42.80.
In the girls’ Division III race, Felicity freshman Kaitlin Sharp put up the best time between the pair of local runners, finishing in 50th place with a time of 22:16.38.
Williamsburg’s lone female representative, Heather McIntosh, came in 77th place with a time of 22:59.83.