UPPER SANDUSKY — The 2018 cross country season began for the Galion Tigers and many other area teams on Wednesday, August 22 at the Upper Sandusky Ice Breaker Invite. The event, originally scheduled for Tuesday, was pushed back a day due to weather and saw a total of 321 finishers.
Galion’s boys squad would finish in sixth overall with an average time of 19:07.48 in a field that was dominated by the perennial powerhouse that is the Mount Gilead Indians. Mount Gilead saw Brett Shipman winning the boys event in 16:35.51 and would go on to sweep the entire top-five finishing spots en route to the team victory.
Braxton Tate would earn the Tigers top finish by crossing the finish line with a time of 16:57.30, which was good for seventh overall. Tate would see teammates Brenden Ganshorn and Garrett Murphy also finish within the top-50 of the 180-runner field. Ganshorn ran the 5k in 18:52.04, good for 31st while Murphy earned 41st with a time of 19:25.01.
Also in action for Galion at the invitational were: 59. Braeden Horn; 65. Zach Slone; 82. Kurt Ensman; 115. Mikey Stover and 138. Sean Clark.
The Lady Tigers would finish in eighth place on the day with a team average time of 23:48.15.
Mount Gilead would also capture the team win on the girls side and Lauren Mick of Notre Dame Academy outran the field of 140 other races to win with a time of 18:24.08.
Brooklyn Gates was the top finisher for Galion, finishing in 23rd with a time of 21:55.95. Joining Gates in the top-50 were Zaynah Tate and Airyona Nickels. Tate earned 41st with a finishing time of 23:26.80 in her first high school race while Nickels ran to 46th overall in 23:52.11. Just missing out on a top-50 finish was Sari Conner. Conner finished her run in 23:58.20 and finished in 51st.
Other finishers for the Galion Lady Tigers squad on Wednesday were: 84. Ava Smith; 120. Amara Ratcliff and 121. Harmony Lohr.
The boys and girls representing Galion will be back in action on Tuesday, August 28 when they hit the road to run against Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference foe, the Harding Presidents.
