MARION — In their final tune-up before their respective conference meets, the cross country teams from Northmor and Colonel Crawford were on the road to Marion on Saturday, October 6 to compete in the Harding Invitational.
Team champion on the boys side was the squad from Ashland, outlasting second place Shelby; 41-45. Northmor clocked in at eighth overall while Crawford claimed 13th in the field of 211 total runners. Caleb Brown of Shelby won the boys individual title with a time of 16:06.4.
Over on the girls side, Makenna Heimlich of Shelby outran the other 181 girls in the field to claim the individual title in a time of 19:17.0. Jonathan Alder won the team title with 91 points while Centerburg claimed the runner-up spot with 104 points. The Lady Golden Knights finished 13th and the Lady Eagles ran to a 15th place team finish.
The boys team from Northmor had three runners finish within the top-50 on the day, led by a 22nd place finish by Gavvin Keen in a time of 17:32.2. Ryan Bentley claimed 29th in a time of 17:45.0 and Mostyn Evans ran to a 44th place finish with a time of 18:21.3.
Other Golden Knights in the field Saturday were: 80. Kooper Keen; 85. Amil Upchurch; 87. Austin Amens; 99. Chase Hoover; 125. BJ White; 128. TJ Diehl and 155. Alec Moore.
For the Colonel Crawford Eagles, Mason McKibben was the only runner to crack the top-50, earning 38th overall with a finishing time of 18:05.2.
Other runners representing the black and yellow of Crawford were: 76. Braxton James; 83. Alex Lawson; 108. Alex Mutchler; 127. Zach Leonhart; 163. Lucas Lawson; 168. Carson James and 183. Jacob Hoffman.
The Lady Knights and the Lady Eagles had just one runner apiece finish in the top-50 on the day in Marion. Northmor’s Sabrina Kelley snagged 49th place with a time of 22:19.1 and Crawford’s Katie Hanft clocked in at 21:57.8, good for 37th.
Other Northmor runners in the field were: 63. Kristie Wright; 69. Julia Kanagy; 71. Julianna DiTullio; 96. Olivia Goodson; 142. Carolyn McGaulley; 145. Bailey Snyder and 148. Maddison Yaussy.
Also representing the Lady Eagles at the invite Saturday were: 56. Katie Hopkins; 115. Alison Manko; 122. Courtney Lyons; 123. Sheba Sulser; 146. Theresa Dzugan and 166. Abby Hocker.
Northmor will head to Mount Gilead on Saturday, October 13 to compete in the Knox-Morrow Athletic Conference meet while Crawford will be in Attica for the Northern-10 Athletic Conference meet, hosted by Seneca East.