By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Cross-country runners from across the Southeast District converged on Rio Grande University on Saturday, October 21 as the school played host to the district cross-country meet, the first step in the postseason for these endurance athletes. The runners on Saturday were looking to secure berths in the upcoming regional meet and the Division III regional meet will be well represented by runners from Adams County.
For the county, the district meet produced a pair of district champions, one team and one individual, and two team runner-ups, plus three more individual qualifiers.
The remarkable cross-country career of Peebles senior Samantha Seas will continue at the regional meet as Seas made it back-to-back district championships in Division III, winning last weekend’s race in a time of 19:44.31, outdistancing second place Brandy Shular from Eastern Brown. At the regional meet, Seas will be looking to earn her third consecutive trip to the OHSAA State Meet after placing third in last year’s regional run.
In the Southeast District, the top two teams in the overall standings are both declared District Champions and this year one of those teams is the West Union Lady Dragons, who improved on a third place finish in 2022 by bumping up a spot to second, only trailing first-place Huntington. It will be the seventh year in a row that the Lady Dragons will be competing in the regional meet.
The top finisher for the Lady Dragons in the district meet was junior Sadie Armstrong, who placed 11th overall in a field of 109 runners with a time of 21:59.10. Freshman Lydia Armstrong was 23rd (23:20.77) and freshman Violet Randolph came in 29th (23:55.31). Senior Allie McCarty was 37th (24:24.91), with junior Lily Randolph 64th (26:43.69), while senior Sara Boldman 84th (28:57.92). Freshman Kaylee Vogler was 104th (35:03.20).
“Looking back through records in school history winning the league and now being district champions for the first time is an incredible accomplishment,” said West Union head coach Meg McCarty. “This group of girls has worked hard and peaked when they need to at the end of the season. We have had some setbacks with one of our top five girls having a season-ending injury about a month ago but the other girls stepped up and helped fill the void. It’s great to see the girls’ hard work paying off and the fact that they are such a close group makes it even more special to watch. I’m proud of each one of them and all they have accomplished this season.”
“Having the help of Donnie McCarty and Tess Holloway as assistant coaches has been invaluable. I can’t take all the credit for coaching this group as Donnie and Tess work with these girls as much as I do.”
Also advancing to the regional meet with third place finishes at the district will be both the North Adams girls and boys teams. The North Adams girls were led by a 34th place finish from junior Mckenna Shelton (24:11.55), a 35th place finish from junior Taylor McIntire (24:18.64), and a 36th place finish from junior Katelynn Boerger (24:22.14). Also on the course for the Lady Devils were senior Hunter Grooms (50th, 25:38.08), senior Taylor Shelton (60th, 26:32.44), freshman Emma Thatcher (70th, 27:25.82), and sophomore Rebecca Bowling (85th, 29:03.18).
The North Adams boys team will also be advancing to the regional meet and their top runner in a field of 154 runner at the district was a 24th place finish in a time of 18:24.99 by sophomore Beau Hesler. Junior Ryan Reed was 29th (18:51.90) with senior Cody Hesler 45th (19:24.08). Right behind in 46th was junior Jimmy Hickey (19:28.67) while senior Garrett Emerson placed 55th (19:40.35). Senior Ryan Shelton was 74th (20:20.21) and junior Boston Crawford was 116th (22:07.24).
“Coach Casie (Reed) and I have been blessed to work with some of the most amazing athletes over the years and for the third year in a row, we will be taking our runners to the Regional Meet in Pickerington,” said North Adams head coach Kelly Boerger. “We are thrilled that both our teams are District Runners Up and excited to see all the SHAC runners compete against the best of the best in Division 3.”
Representing Manchester High School at the regional meet will be three runners, Connor Darnell in the boys race and Madison Lejzerowicz and Emma Hurst in the girls race. Darnell placed 10th overall with a time of 17:29.34 while in the girls race Hurst was ninth in a time of 21:57.16 while Lejzerowicz was 22nd at 23:15.10.
The Division III regional meet will take place on Saturday, October 28 at Pickerington North High School with the DIII girls race at 10 a.m. and the boys following at 10:45 a.m.