Defending the home course

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

It was a perfect October 4 Saturday morning for running at West Union High School as the Dragons hosted their annual Invitational Cross-Country Meet. Besides the host Dragons, runners from Clermont Northeaster, Northwest, Paint Valley, Ripley, Whiteoak, Peebles, North Adams, Western Latham, Fayetteville, Scioto Christian and Augusta lined up to tackle the newly configured course at WUHS.

In the junior high and high school races, medals were awarded to the top 20 finishers and in the junior high girls race, the medalists from Adams County included North Adams’ Haylee Wheeler, who placed second in a field of 25 runners with a time of 13:41.0, with teammate Kendall Geeslin finishing fourth at 13:58.7. Another North Adams runner, Jenna Work, placed fifth in a time of 15:30. Peebles’ Addie Hoop was ninth at 16:20.3 and the remaining county medalists were West Union’s Ashlynn Barnhart (11th, 17:15.5), Peebles’ Chloe Tolle (14th, 17:31.4), North Adams’ Reagann McAdams (15th, 17:35.2), North Adams’ Addison Spiller (16th, 17:47.9), North Adams’ Lucy Meade (17th, 17:51), North Adams’ Layla Martin (18th, 18:11.1) and Peebles’ Madison Fitzgerald (20th, 18:46.5).

The overall team champion for junior high girls was Paint Valley (25) with North Adams second (30).

Thirty-three runners stepped to the start line for the junior high boys race, with nine runners from the county collecting medals at their finish. The top junior high boys’ finisher from the county was Peebles’ Collin Mullally, who was eighth with a time of 14:23.7 with West Union’s Colton Meade ninth at 14:25.6. Rounding out the county’s junior high boys medalists were: Peebles’ Zane Van Fleet (14th, 14:59.4), Peebles’ Banner Tolle (15th, 14:59.9), Peebles’ Andrew Lux (16th, 15:11.4), West Union’s Granger Rhonemus (17th, 15:16.9), West Union’s Greyson Vermeulen (18th, 15:22.7), West Union’s Wyatt Gustin (19th, 15:36.0) and North Adams’ CJ Boner (20th, 16:34.6).

The junior high boys team champion was Paint Valley (19) with Peebles second (47) and West Union third (55).

The high school girls race, consisting of 23 runners, was dominated by host West Union as the Lady Dragons had five of the top seven runners overall, led by Stella Rhonemus, who won the race with her time of 21:00.9. Second place went to West Union’s Ella Shupert in a time of 21:28.5 and in third was the Lady Dragons’ Lydia Armstrong with a time of 22:09.4. Intruding on the West Union parade was North Adams’ Trinity Bosko, who finished fifth with her time of 23:28.4, but spots six and seven went to the Lady Dragons, Tabitha Armstrong sixth at 23:33.1 and Emma Crawford seventh at 23:35.1. North Adams’ Emma thatcher placed 10th with a time of 24:57.1 and the remainder of the county’s high school girls medalists included North Adams’ Ellie Bosko (17th, 28:57.2), West Union’s Aubree Hoop (18th, 29:26.8), West Union’s Nina McCann (19th, 29:26.8) and North Adams’ Alyssa McAdams (20th, 30:22.9).

West Union easily won the high school girls team title with the low score of 15.

The high school boys race had 47 runners and the top finisher in the county was Peebles’ Calen Vogler, who was eighth in a time of 19:03.7. West Union’s Andrew Daley placed 10th with his time of 19:20.7 with Peebles’ Grady Myers 12th at 19:39.3. The other high school boys medalists from the county included North Adams’ Jacob Thatcher (15th, 20:03.1) and West Union’s Fletcher Watkins (19th, 20:11.9).

The high school boys team champion was Clermont Northeastern (33) with Paint Valley second (42) and West Union third (75).

All of the county cross-country runners will be back in action this Saturday in Ripley for the Southern Hills Athletic Conference Meets. The races are alted to begin at 9 a.m.