Southeast District Division III Girls District Champions- West Union
Manchester boys district runners-up
Southeast District Division III Girls District Champions- Manchester
Southeast District Division III Boys District Runner-Up- Manchester
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
The cross-country success in 2024 for Adams County continued last weekend as Rio Grande University hosted the Southeast District Division III District meets and three squads from the county will continue their season at the regional level.
In the Southeast District, the top two teams are declared district champions and on the girls side, those two were the West Union Lady Dragons and the Manchester Lady Greyhounds. West Union had an overall team score of 59 with Manchester at 94 as both punched their tickets to the regional race. The top five teams at district move on to regionals and in the boys standings, Manchester finished fourth and will advance to regional competition.
For Coach Donnie McCarty and the Lady Dragons, their top runner in the district meet was West Union freshman Ella Shupert, who placed fifth overall in a field of 116 runners, turning in a finish time of 20:42.31. Sophomore Lydia Armstrong was ninth at 21:30.90 while freshman Stella Rhonemus was close behind in 10th place with a time of 21:38.10. Senior Sadie Armstrong was 12th at 21:44.23 and the final West Union runner to score was junior Emma Crawford who placed 36th with a time of 23:26.06.
For Coach Sean Inman and the Lady Hounds, the top district runner was freshman Leotie Carman who was seventh overall in a time of 120:56.47, with senior Emma Hurst 11th with her time of 21:43.71. Next in for the Lady Hounds was senior Madison Lejzerowicz in 14th place with a finish time of 21:46.64 and the final two Manchester scorers were sophomore Gracie Barr (41st-24:05.87) and sophomore Maddie Napier (44th-24:15.57).
for Coach Inman’s boys squad, the top district runner was junior Ryan Butcher-Raines who finished 14th with a time of 17:25.44. In his first year of cross-country, senior Braylan Roberts has steadily improved and placed 17th in the field of 152 runners with a time of 17:30.53. Also scoring for the Greyhounds were junior Elijah Crabtree (45th-18:45.94), junior Kaden Hazelwood (56th-19:07.42) and junior Ryan Mack (75th- 19:49.17).
The three county teams now move on to the regional competition, which will be held at Pickerington High School on Saturday, October 26.
