MOUNT GILEAD — On Saturday morning, the cross country teams representing Galion High School headed to Mount Gilead to compete in the Thill Invitational.
Galion’s Braxton Tate would run his way to yet another invite title on the day, pacing the field of 103 competitors with a championship time of 15:23.37.
Overall, the Tigers boys team would finish in fifth place, tallying 119 points. Mount Gilead won the team title with 36 points to hold off the runner-ups from Fredericktown (54).
Rounding out the boys’ field scoring were: 3. Team FCA- 107; 4. Madison- 117; 6. Grandview Heights- 136 and 7. Bucyrus- 162.
Joining Tate in the top-50 on the day for Galion’s boys were Braeden Horn, Kellen Kiser, Garrett Murphy, Mathias Breinich, Holden Gabriel and Corban Justice.
Horn ran his way to 26th in the field with a time of 18:23.16 while Kiser finished 31st at 18:45.02. Murphy clocked in with a time of 19:11.47, good for 42nd with teammate Breinich right behind him in 43rd in 19:11.81. Gabriel (19:22.80) and Justice (19:37.09) rounded out the top-50 placers, finishing in 46th and 50th, respectively.
Also in the field for the Tigers on Saturday were: 61. Zach Slone; 63. Simon Shawk; 72. Grayson Willacker; 80. Sean Clark and 86. Hunter Parsley.
In the girls field, the Lady Tigers would finish fifth overall as well, scoring 98 points. Fredericktown won the girls title, edging their conference foes from Mount Gilead; 52-58.
Rounding out the girls scoring were: 3. Grandview Heights- 80; 4. Team FCA- 98 and 6. Madison- 120. Baylee Hack of Mount Gilead finished as the individual champion in the 84-finisher field, crossing the finish line with a time of 18:38.28.
Galion’s girls saw six runners finish their days within the top-50, led by Brooklyn Gates. Gates was the top-placer for Galion, claiming 12th in the field with a race time of 20:46.45.
Joining Gates in the top-20 were Zaynah Tate, Airyona Nickels and Ava Smith while Jasmine Clingman and Natalee Perkins rounded out the top-50 placers for the Lady Tigers.
Tate finished 16th in the field at 21:15.21 with Nickels grabbing 18th in a time of 21:35.41. Smith ran her race in 21:39.13, good for 20th while Clingman crossed the finish line in 23:32.03 to earn 38th. Perkins claimed 48th with her time of 24:17.05.
Others running for Galion in Mount Gilead on Saturday were: 54. Danielle Manring; 66. Micah Brown; 67. Kaylee Ramsey; 75. Amara Ratcliff; 78. Hannah Daniels; 80. Celeste Nunez and 83. Camile Nunez.
Galion’s squads will be on the road to Marion Harding on Saturday, October 12 where they will compete in the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference championship meet. Action is set to begin on Saturday at approximately 9:30 a.m.
