ATTICA — The cross country team members from Galion High School loaded up the buses and headed to Attica on Saturday morning to compete in the Seneca East Tiger Classic. It was the Tigers first time ever participating in the invitational.
The meet, split up into three separate divisions: White, Black and Orange, featured runners from all over Ohio and a combined 1,446 finishers on the day. Galion’s squads competed in the Orange Division and saw the girls team finish third overall out of 16 teams with 147 points while the boys took 11th of 18 teams, tallying 272 points.
On the girls side of things, the Ontario Lady Warriors absolutely dominated the field, snagging spots two through six en route to just 20 points for the team title. The runner-ups from Cloverleaf finished with 145 points. In the Ontario-heavy top of the leaderboard, Abby Lesniak of Edison would claim the individual championship with a winning time of 19:03.57.
Airyona Nickels would be the Lady Tigers’ top-finisher on the day, crossing the finish line in a time of 22:00.18 to earn 26th in the field of 174 finishers. Brooklyn Gates would finish just behind Nickels, claiming 27th in a time of 22:06.15.
Galion’s sophomore trio of Zaynah Tate, Ava Smith and Emily McDonald would all find themselves finishing in the top-50 in the field on Saturday. Tate clocked in with a time of 22:32.55, good for 30th while Smith came in 31st in 22:34.97. McDonald ran her way to 33rd in the crowded field, finishing with a time of 22:35.25.
Also in action for the third-place Galion Lady Tigers on Saturday were: 81. Jasmine Clingman- 25:12.54; 97. Natalee Perkins- 26:07.90; 147. Amara Ratcliff- 29:56.87; 168. Hannah Daniels- 36:21.97; 172. Camile Nunez- 40:21.89 and 174. Celeste Nunez- 42:34.99.
New London would claim the team championship on the boys side of the Orange Division, finishing with 69 points to hold off the runner-ups from Cloverleaf (116). Individual champion for the boys also came from Edison as Daniel Lambert led the field en route to the title in a time of 15:57.69.
Galion’s boys would see one, top-five finish and just one additional runner finishing in the top-50 of the 243-finisher field.
Senior Braxton Tate crossed the finish line in 16:40.05 in Attica on Saturday to claim fourth-place points for the Tigers while Braeden Horn finished in 47th overall with a time of 18:48.29.
Other boys running on the day for Galion and their placements were: 70. Mathias Breinich- 19:33.69; 76. Holden Gabriel- 19:45.70; 88. Kellen Kiser- 19:55.18; 127. Corban Justice- 21:02.73; 129. Garrett Murphy- 21:06.18; 142. Zach Slone- 21:20.63; 151. Simon Shawk- 21:37.36; 153. Grayson Willacker- 21:39.67 and 158. Sean Clark- 21:52.73.
The Mount Gilead boys won the White Division team title on Saturday, posting 82 points to 102 points from the runner-ups from Hopewell-Loudon. Ethan Supplee won the individual title for the Indians in a time of 16:31.12 as Mount Gilead claimed the top-three spots. Over on the girls side in the White Division, the Lady Indians’ Allison Johnson ran to the championship in 18:56.62 as Mount Gilead claimed spots one, two and 10 en route to a runner-up finish behind Liberty Center; 48-116. There were 277 finishers in the boys race in the division and 221 finishers in the girls field on Saturday.
Caleb Brown of Shelby set a new school record on Saturday en route to the Black Division title. Brown ran his way to the crown in a championship time of 15:18.15. Perrysburg won the boys title in the division, holding off Medina; 75-78. Over on the girls side of things in the Black Division, Lauryn Mick from the Notre Dame Academy claimed the championship in 18:19.08 as Lexington won the team championship over Medina; 36-71. There were 288 finishers in the boys field and 243 finishers in the girls field in the Black Division at the classic.
