PATASKALA — The Northmor High School cross country teams were in action on Saturday, Oct. 21 at Watkins Memorial to compete for a chance to advance to the regional meet in Pickerington.
Both the girls team and the boys team will be doing just that as the Lady Golden Knights earned runner-up status in their portion of the day while the boys finished third overall.
On the girls side, the top four teams and the top 16 individuals would move on to compete at regionals on Saturday, Oct. 28. As to be expected, the Mount Gilead Lady Indians cruised to the title, finishing ahead of Northmor (66) with 28 team points. Baylee Hack, sophomore for the Mount Gilead squad, won the individual title with a time of 18:38.47.
Rounding out the team placements on the girls side were: 3. Johnstown Northridge; 4. Columbus Academy; 5. Village Academy; 6. Elgin; 7. Worthington Christian; 8. Madison Christian and 9. Grove City Christian. There were 69 total runners that finished the race on Saturday.
The top-placing runner for the Lady Knights, who saw all of their runners finish in the top-25 on the day, was Jessica Duryea. Duryea crossed the finish line with a time of 20:26.44 to earn an 11th place finish. Right behind Duryea was teammate Samantha Peters, taking 12th in 20:34.18. Julia Kanagy (21:22.81), Maddie Jordan (21:58.11) and Olivia Goodson (22:01.77) finished in 16th, 17th and 18th, respectively. Brooke Bennett was 20th on the day with a time of 22:08.18 and Julianna Ditullio finished 25th in a time of 22:38.28.
For the boys, Mount Gilead won the championship over inner-conference foe, the Fredericktown Freddies; 25-38. Northmor was third with 87 points. In the boys portion of the race, only the top three teams and top 12 individuals advanced to the Pickerington regionals.
Mount Gilead sophomore Liam Dennis earned the district title, finishing the 5k with a time of 16:26.73.
Rounding out the team placements in the boys field were: 4. Cardington; 5. Village Academy; 6. East Knox; 7. Granville Christian Academy and 8. Centerburg. There were 58 runners that competed in the boys side of the event.
Gavvin Keen was the top-placer for Northmor on the day, running to a seventh-place finish in 16:57.57. The Knights would have four other runners finish within the top-25 on the day as well. Austin Amens ran the meet in 17:24.48, good for 13th place. Ryan Bentley crossed the finish line in 21st place in 18:05.10. BJ White (18:13.08) and Chase Hoover (18:16.27) took 24th and 25th, respectively.
Other Northmor boys in action Saturday were: Kaleb Hart (28th)- 18:37.77 and Mostyn Evans (30th)- 18:43.69.
Both of the Northmor squads will be at Pickerington North for their Division III regional meet on Saturday, Oct. 28. Best of luck Golden Knights!
