Sports Editor
The Southern Buckeye Conference Cross Country League Meets were held at Goshen High School on Oct. 17 with New Richmond and Bethel-Tate taking home boys honors and Amelia and Blanchester winning their respective divisions on the girls side.
The boys American Division race finished with Amelia falling to New Richmond by a single point. Western Brown was third, Goshen was fourth and Batavia came in fifth.
The Barons’ Justin Tavner posted the best time in the American — 17:25.86 — some 13 seconds faster than teammate Tom Casavant (second).
New Richmond was led by Luke Glenn and Ryan Wolf who came in fourth and sixth place, respectively. The Lions strength and consistency from runners 1-5 was the key to nipping the Barons for the team’s third consecutive league crown.
Other top finishers included Western Brown’s Rob Conaty (third) and JT Martin (seventh), Goshen’s Grant Winterkorn (fifth) and Michael Mason (eighth), Batavia’s Dylan Young (ninth) and Amelia’s Roger Casavant (10th).
In the National Division race, Bethel-Tate’s Jackson Coates (16:54.33) edged Felicity-Franklin’s Jared Boeckmann (16:54.81) by less than five tenths of a second. The pair distanced themselves from the field by nearly a minute as Felicity’s Bradley Elkins finished in third place with a time of 17:42.99.
Similar to New Richmond’s triumph over Amelia in the American Division, Bethel edged second-place Georgetown and third-place Felicity thanks to a consistent team result that saw all five Tigers finish inside the top-20. Blanchester finished fourth, Williamsburg was fifth and Clermont Northeastern was sixth.
Top finishers in the National included Georgetown’s Chris Dietrick (fourth) and Emerson Cahall (fifth), Clermont Northeastern’s Seth Teaney (sixth), Bethel-Tate’s Justin Royer (seventh) and Zane Royer (10th), Blanchester’s Tyler Holland (eighth) and Williamsburg’s Jeffery Schlueter (ninth).
The girls race was won by Amelia’s Maddie Walker (18:48.65). Walker finished more than a minute ahead of runner-up and teammate Morgan Walsh (20:04.92). The Lady Barons took home the American Division crown over defending champions New Richmond. Western Brown, Bethel-Tate and Batavia rounded out the American Division standings. Blanchester won the National Division and was the only team to have five individuals complete the race.
Top finishers include New Richmond’s Caitlin Biehle (third) and Emily Belmont (fifth), Amelia’s Maria Cardarelli (fourth) and Jessica Sheets (ninth), Blanchester’s Savannah Rhodes (sixth) and Olivia Gundler (seventh) and Western Brown’s Sophie Leo (eighth) and Carson Jones (10th).
Complete results for both the boys and girls races are available on baumspage.com by navigating to cross country and the SBAAC Championships.
Area runners are in action this weekend at the district tournament held at Voice of America Park in West Chester. Races will begin with the Division I boys at 10 a.m. and continue throughout the day. Complete district tournament information is available at swdab.org.