MARION — On Saturday morning, the cross country teams representing the seven member schools of the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference headed to Harding to compete in the league meet.
In the girls portion of the race, the Ontario Lady Warriors entered as the returning champions and would repeat in 2019, tallying just 18 total points on the day while the Galion Lady Tigers finished as the runner-ups, scoring 62 points.
Rounding out the scoring in the girls race with 45 finishers were: 3. River Valley- 92; 4. Shelby- 96; 5. CLEAR FORK- 128 and 6. Harding- 135. Ontario freshman Brienne Trumpower won the individual title on the day, crossing the finish line in a championship time of 18:43.1.
The Galion Lady Tigers would see five runners finish in the top-20 on the day, led by a ninth place finish from Zaynah Tate. Tate finished her race in a time of 20:39.6, seconds ahead of 10th place finisher and teammate Brooklyn Gates. Gates rounded out the top-10 with a time of 20:43.6.
Emily McDonald crossed the finish line in 21:26.8, good for 13th while Airyona Nickels snagged 16th overall with her race time of 21:44.2. Ava Smith wrapped Galion’s top-20 finishers, claiming the 20th spot with her time of 22:09.2.
Jasmine Clingman and Natalee Perkins were the final two scores considered for the Lady Tigers on Saturday in Marion. Clingman (23:21.5) finished 24th in the field while Perkins (24:00.4) claimed 31st of 45 runners in the field.
Danielle Manring (33rd), Kaitlyn Bailey (36th) and Micah Brown (41st) were also in the field for the runner-up Tigers in the MOAC meet.
For the Clear Fork Lady Colts, Isabellah Molina and Claire Blubaugh both cracked the top-25 at Harding. Molina finished 17th overall with her time of 21:46.6 while Blubaugh snagged 25th in 23:24.3.
Jocie Dornbirer (23:59.1) finished 30th, Allison Ross (24:40.3) earned 34th and Kailyn Moody (25:15.1) ran to a 39th place finish on the day to round out the Clear Fork roster.
Similar to the girls field, the boys field would see a back-to-back champion crowned as the Shelby Whippets finished as the top squad, posting just 24 points on the day. Ontario finished as the runner-ups with 76 points.
Rounding out the boys scoring were: 3. GALION- 91; 4. Pleasant- 92; 5. River Valley- 122; 6. Harding- 132 and 7. CLEAR FORK- 198. Individual champion on the day was Shelby senior Caleb Brown. Brown crossed the finish line in 15:04.7, 54 seconds ahead of the runner-up, Braxton Tate of Galion (15:58.8). In total, the boys race had 60 finishers.
Joining Tate in the top-half of the finishers in the field on Saturday were Braeden Horn, Mathias Breinich, Garrett Murphy and Kellen Kiser.
Horn cracked the top-20 in the field, placing 17th with his time of 18:04.4. Breinich rounded out the top-25 in a time of 18:34.1 while Murphy snagged 27th, crossing the finish line in 18:44.1. Kiser returned home after placing 30th in 19:08.8.
Also in the field on Saturday for Galion’s boys were: 35. Holden Gabriel (19:31.5); 36. Corban Justice (19:35.1); 40. Zach Slone; 44. Grayson Willacker and 46. Simon Shawk.
Nathen Wright was the top-finisher for the Clear Fork boys team, earning 35 points for the Colts by finishing 38th in 19:46.3. Kaden Wilson crossed the finish line right behind Wright, taking 39th in a time of 19:50.8.
Other members of the Colts placements at the MOAC meet were: 42. Logan Myerholtz (20:01.1); 49. Liam Motter (20:52.2); 54. Ben Wallis (21:35.2); 56. Alex Pore (21:42.1); 57. Cooper Conkling (21:45.7); 58. Jared Mack; 59. Ian Price and 60. Caiden Moody.
