EATON AND PLEASANT HILL — Eaton’s men’s and women’s cross country teams repeated as Southwestern Buckeye League West Division champions during the SWBL league meet held on Saturday, Oct. 15 at Eaton’s Fort St. Clair Park.
“Overall, we had a beautiful day with great racing conditions at Fort St. Clair. Course was the driest I’ve seen in several years, but overall, the course was in great shape,” Eaton coach Randy McKinney said. “Times were outstanding for this time of year, but a lot of that had to do with the level of outstanding competition in all four of the high school races and the two junior high races.”
The women’s high school varsity race featured three state ranked teams with Waynesville (4th, D-II), Oakwood (13th, D-II) and Eaton (20th, D-II) while in the men’s varsity race there were two state ranked team with Oakwood (11th, D-II) and Eaton (16th, D-II).
For Eaton, both the men and women’s team captured the league title for the second consecutive year.
For the men’s team this is four titles in the last 6 years. Overall this is the 11th SWBL Championship for the Eaton women’s program and 16th for the men’s program.
The Lady Eagles swept the West Division, which is a first in SWBL history, by placing 5 runners in the first 5 places earning a perfect team score of 15 points. In Cross Country the lowest team score wins. The Lady Eagles placed 7 runners in the top 10 and 9 in the top 14 places. Lauren Guiley captured the individual title with a time of 20:05.3.
Rounding out the top seven for Eaton was Kiera Elliott (2nd, 20:22.4), Emily Haynes (3rd, 20:27.5), Kaili Hewitt (4th, 20:30.7), Cami McCloud (5th, 20:44.9), Rylie Haynes (7th, 21:18.8) and Addison Guiley (10th, 21:36.9).
The men’s team, like the Lady Eagles, captured the West Division title with a low team score of 22 points with runner-up Brookville placing 29 points behind the Eagles. The men’s team placed 8 runners in the top 13 places and 6 in the top 9 places. Tanner Davis captured the men’s individual title in a time of 16:38.3 with teammate Kolby Hamilton close behind in 16:39.2.
Rounding out the top seven were James Baker (4th, 17:07.7), Jack Richardson (7th, 17:36.9), Bradley Gifford (17:45.0), Nick Laycox (18:07.4) and Wes Kitchin (12th, 18:22.3).
McKinney said hosting the event takes a lot of help and he is grateful for the support his program receives.
“I want to thank the Eaton parents, the Eaton Wrestling program who handles parking for the meet, the school administration and especially the City of Eaton who continues to do so many behind the scenes things to help make Fort St. Clair Park accessible and ready for our home meets we contest during the season,” McKinney said. “The City of Eaton and the Eaton Cross Country program is truly blessed to have Fort St. Clair Park. It is the envy of every school that participates in any of our meets held at the park. There is no other park like it in Southwest Ohio.”
Preble Shawnee’s girls’ cross country team finished fourth at the Western Ohio Athletic Conference meet on Saturday, Oct. 15 at Indian Hills 4-H Camp.
The Arrows finished with 82 points. Arcanum was the girls team champion with 24 points.
On the boys’ side, Arcanum won with 33 points.
No other county team had enough runners to score as a team.
For Shawnee, Paige House led the way finishing 16th with a time of 25:16.2. Valerie Whitson was 18th in 25:36.6. Sally White was 19th in 25:39.4 and Bella Adkins was 23rd in 26:16.4. Addyson Housed finished 35th in28:33.4, while Regina Rodriguez was 36th (28:39.3) and Faith Jesse was 37th in 28:59.3.
For National Trail, the Blazers placed three runners in the top 10. Sydney Whalen was 7th in 23:10.6, while Judith Denlinger was 9th in 23:44.8 and Gretchen Murphy was 10th in 23:45.4.
For Twin Valley South Kiki Allison was 29th in 27:05.2. while Allison Cole was 39th in 30:43.3 and Alexis Turpin was 40th in 30:43.4.
On the boys’ side, National Trail’s Joel Hunt was 15th in 19:13.4. Braydon Lee was 25th in 19:49.3 and Caleb Gilland was 42nd in 21:05.0
For Preble Shawnee, Trent Geise was 24th in 19:45.8. Case Roell was 37th in 20:33.2. Taylor Bradley was 45th in 21:16.4 and Beau Garnett was 57th in 22:43.1.
For Tri-County North, Jonathan Landis was 10th overall in 19:04.1. Alex Mackellar was 41st in 20:55.9 and Ethan Brueggemann was 59th in 22:59.0.
Twin Valley South was led by Nathan King’s 21st place finish in 19:39.9. He was followed by Mason Thornburgh in 60th in 23:20.9, Elliott Voge in 63rd in 23:54.4 and Matthew Dehart was 67th in 25:30.5.
The next meet for all teams will be Saturday, Oct. 22 when they take part in the district tournament at Cedarville University.
Eaton’s boys will compete in the Division II race at 11:30 a.m. The girls Division II race will feature Eaton and Preble Shawnee at 12:15 p.m.
National Trail, Preble Shawnee, Tri-County North, and Twin Valley South will compete in the boys Division III race at 1 p.m. and National Trail and Twin Valley South will run in the girls Division III race at 1:45 to close at the day.
