PATASKALA — Last Saturday, Sept. 9, the cross country squads from Northmor and Galion traveled to Watkins Memorial High School in Pataskala to run in the annual McGowan Invitational.
The Northmor Lady Golden Knights finished as the runner-up in the Division III race before a league foe, the Centerburg Lady Trojans. Northmor had four girls finish in the top-25 in the field for the day.
Leading that pack for the Lady Knights was Jessica Duryea. Duryea finished ninth overall on the day with a time of 20:53.1. In 18th place was Julianna Ditullio with a time of 21:25.7. Sam Peters crossed the finish line in 21:32.2, good for 20th overall. Rounding out the top-25 finishers for Northmor was Brooke Bennett. Bennett ran the event in 21:47.3 and came in 24th in the field.
Other Northmor Lady Knights running last Saturday were: Kristie Wright- 22:17.6; Julia Kanagy- 22:18.6; Sabrina Kelley- 22:27.6; Olivia Goodson- 23:13.6; Carolyn McGaulley- 24:12.1; Samantha Grogg- 25:20.4; Kenadie Hart- 26:42.3 and Tori Carver- 29:34.8.
On the boys side of things, the Knights finished third out of 18 teams in the Division III portion of the invite. Gavin Keen ran a time of 17:31.2, good for 11th overall and teammate Austin Amens was right behind him in 12th place with a finishing time of 17:32.4.
Other Northmor boys running last Saturday were: Ryan Bentley- 18:30.1; BJ White- 18:34.3; Kaleb Hart- 19:03.8; Chase Hoover- 19:07.6; Kooper Keen- 19:24.7; Manny Heilman- 19:55.1; Alec Moore- 20:03.2; Sam Weaver- 20:15.1; Kolton Hart- 20:28.0; Kyle Price- 20:55.5; Zach Govoni- 21:33.7; Austin Lewis- 23:24.4 and Josh Cramer- 25:16.7.
Both of the Galion squads finished in 21st place in their respective fields at the McGowan Invite.
For the boys, it was a 21st place finish in a 28-team field. Braxton Tate was the only top-25 finisher for the Tigers, crossing the finish line with a time of 16:53.6, good for 24th.
Other Galion boys running were: Brendon Ganshorn- 18:42.6; Weston Rose- 18:49.1; Nathan Eckert- 19:03.6; Hunter Parsley- 19:46.6; Garret Murphy- 19:50.5; Luke Eisnaugle- 20:06.4; Kurt Ensman- 20:22.2; Zach Slone- 20:40.8; Simon Shawk- 21:15.0; Spencer Guinther- 21:27.1; Mikey Stover- 21:54.4; Braden Horn- 21:56.0; Grayson Willacker- 23:14.5 and Ben Alstadt- 23:23.1.
The Lady Tigers finished in 21st out 24 teams last Saturday. The top finisher for Galion was Airyona Nickels, crossing the finish line in 50th overall with a time of 22:17.0. Sari Conner finished the race in 23:56 and Murissa Windbigler rounded out the top-100 at 97th in a time of 24:15.
Other Lady Tigers running last Saturday were: Ashlie Sallee- 25:29; Destiny Yoder- 26:23; Cheyenne Blair- 26:49; Amara Ratcliff- 28:44 and Ashleight Wright- 33:00.
Both the Northmor squads and the Galion squads will be back in action on Saturday, September 16 at the annual Galion Cross Country Festival at Amann Reservoir Park in Galion.
