The Peebles Lady Indians high school girls cross-country finished second in last weekend’s Ohio Classic in Hillsboro. From left, Josie Chamblin, Kaelin West, Jenny Seas, Kierra Stone, Matti Nichols, Abby Faulkner, and Alisan Behr.

 

By Mark Carpenter – 

The early season success continued last Saturday morning for Coach Ty Stephens and his Peebles Indians cross-country squads as they competed in the Ohio Classic Cross-Country Extravaganza in Hillsboro.
“Being this early in the season, I couldn’t be more proud of our kids,” said Stephens. “They come to practice every day and work their tails off. We have 13 total runners in our junior high program and only one of those 13 had run before this season. All of our teams are getting better each day.”
“Having kids who work hard makes coaching easy for me.”
The Lady Indians’ varsity girls, led again by race winner Jenny Seas, placed second overall as a team in Hillsboro, adding to their first place finish earlier in the season at the Fayetteville Invitational. Seas again had no problems in winning the event that featured 68 competitors, finishing at 19:36, almost three minutes better than the second place runner. Peebles’ Abby Faulkner placed seventh in the race in a time of 22:28, followed by Kierra Stone 11th at 22:53, Alisan Behr 21st at 24:23, and Josie Chamblin 43rd at 27:39. The Lady Indians’ team score of 67 was second behind Western Brown’s 58.
“This is the first time in awhile that Peebles has had enough girls to score as a high school girls team,” Stephens says.
In the high school boys race, Peebles senior Matt Seas finished second (17:04) in a battle with Fairfield’s Michael Mangus, who won with a time of 16:55 as the Lions won the overall team title. There were 106 runners in the high school boys race and the next Peebles finisher was Seth Chamblin 53rd at 20:41, Corey Baldridge 77th at 23:23, Bryce Willoughby 91st at 25:08, and Ethan Lowe 101st at 29:11.
“We have been dealing with some injuries with our high school boys team,” said Stephens. “We hope to get everyone back and healthy in the next few weeks.”
In the middle school girls race, it was Peebles eighth grader Katy Seas taking the top spot with a time of 13:27 in a field of 66. The top Peebles finisher in the middle school boys race (81 runners) was eighth grader Ethan Pierce, who placed 23rd with his time of 14:01.