EATON — The Eagles hosted the 50th annual Eaton Invitational at Fort St. Clair on Saturday, Sept. 19, with over 1,300 runners representing 48 schools in attendance.
Schools were divided into three sections – Purple, Gold and White – due to COVID-19 restrictions.
With the unusual restrictions in place, Eaton coach Randy McKinney said that he was very pleased with how everything went for the invite.
Oakwood dominated the meet with first place team finishes for both the boys and girls in the varsity Gold 5,000-meter races, with six boys finishing in the top 20 and four girls finishing in the top 5 of their respective races.
In the varsity Gold boys 5,000-meter race, the Eagles finished third in team score with a 72, behind Badin (55) and Oakwood (51), and ahead of Indian Hill (122) and Wyoming (156) in the top five.
Two Badin runners, Owen Matthews and Dominic Seigel, were the first two runners across the finish line, finishing a full 30 seconds before third place.
Eaton senior Jack Bortel finished third (17:14), followed closely by sophomore Kolby Hamilton in sixth (17:24).
Other individual finishes for the Eaton varsity boys include:
20th — Austin Kopf, 18:21; 24th — James Baker, 18:42; 26th — Bradley Gifford, 18:46; 33rd — Cole Hauser, 19:06; 34th —Logan Cottle, 19:09; 54th — Jaxon Roth, 20:22; 75th — Dominic Isaacs, 21:35.
In the varsity Gold girls 5,000-meter run, Oakwood took first with a team score of 25 as their five scored runner all finished in the top 14.
The Eaton girls followed Oakwood with a second place team finish with 66, followed by Wyoming (78), Milton-Union (122) and Badin (127).
Eaton sophomore Lauren Guiley finished fourth with a 19:43, the first non-Oakwood runner to cross the finish line. Sophomore Kiera Elliott earned a sixth place finish for the Eagles with a 20:32.
Other individual finishes for the Eaton varsity girls include:
13th — Kaili Hewitt, 21:03; 18th — Rylie Haynes, 21:50; 25th — Cari Metz, 22:15; 33rd — Stephanie Gibson, 22:41; 37th — Alli Schmidt, 22:59; 43rd — Cami McCloud, 23:23; 54th — Rachel Buckler, 25:01; 63rd — Allison Mowen, 25:43; 74th — Katy Rich, 28:30.
“I thought that was a great finish for those guys. Both teams just keep improving a little bit every week. That’s all were focused on right now. Just try to improve a little bit each week and find out a little bit more about themselves individually as runners, ” McKinney said. “Our goal is always to focus on what I call the championship part of our season when we get into our league meets. That’s what we gear eveyrthing toward the entire season. Anything you do that’s positive during the regular season in the meantime is just icing on the cake.”
In the varsity White races, Twin Valley South and Tri-County North boys earned fifth and sixth place team finishes, respectively, while the South and North girls and National Trail boys ran hard.
Individual county results for the varsity White boys race include:
16th — Ethan Murphy (NT), 18:36; 18th — Aaron Cole (TVS), 18:42; 33rd — Jonathon Landis (TCN), 20:24; 34th — Lee Swafford (TVS), 20:26; 36th — Caleb Gilland (NT), 20:35; 39th — Joel Hunt (NT), 21:24; 40th — Brayden Childers (TVS), 21:35; 42nd — Darryn Shellabarger (TCN), 21:55; 49th — Hunter Pahl (TCN), 22:09; 51st — Aaron Shellabarger (TCN), 22:12; 52nd — Clayton Woodgeard (TVS), 22:49; 56th — Reese Horn (TCN), 23:14; 62nd — Robbie Quinn (TCN), 23:39; 63rd — Dakota Timmons (TCN), 24:35; 67th — Nathan Bottoms (NT), 25:33; 70th — Elliott Voge (TVS), 26:11; 79th — Ben Singleton (TCN), 35:13.
Individual county results for the varsity White girls race include:
24th — Mary Craig (TCN), 26:38; 35th — Lynnlee Voge (TVS), 28:49; 36th — Abigail Smeltzer (TCN), 29:06; 38th — Isabella Mills (TVS), 29:55.
