The Troy Trojans girls’ cross country team finished second overall at their host Troy Invitational on Saturday, in an event which hosted over a dozen teams, including Troy, Tippecanoe and Troy Christian.
The Trojans finished with 64 points, while Tippecanoe was seventh with 206 points. Troy Christian idn’t field a complete team for points, but had some runners compete in the event.
Megan Myers from Troy finished second overall with a time of 20:09.3, just .3 seconds behind Madison Pelfrey from Bellbrook for the title. Troy’s Kate Pence was third at 20:19.0 and Haley Huelsman finished 18th with a time of 21:58.4. Also rounding out the top 20 for local teams was Troy’s Megan Sweeney with a 20th place finish of 22:10.9.
Hyla Pitsenbarger was the highest placer for Troy Christian with a 119th place finish (29:31.7).
For the boys, Nick Pratt from Troy Christian was the highest finisher, placing 31st overall (18:21.6). Troy’s Andy Smith placed 38th (18:39.7), while Troy Christian’s Isaac Flora was 44th, and the Troy duo of Adam Falknor (49th) and Pete Sheehan (50th) rounds out the top 50.
*Also the Brookville Invitational was held Saturday, with area teams involved. Tippecanoe had some runners at the event, and their girls finished second overall to Oakwood for the title. Leading for Tipp was Abbi Halsey who was second overall with a time of 19:44, Laura Fink placed third (19:51), MaKenzie Dietz seventh (20:55), with Annie Martino 15th (21:52) and Anna Klepinger 22nd (22:09). Also for Tipp, Allison Mader was 25th (22:36) and Bekah Shininger 32nd (23:36).
In the boys’ race, Tipp also finished second with 61 points. Michael Stearns was third overall with a time of 17:15, Keenan Fraylick placed 13th (17:55), Ben Jans was 14th (17:56), Noah Ballard 15th (17:58) and Ethan Sinning 16th (17:59). Also placing 17th was Adam Rindler (18:05) and Andrew Doviak was 25th (18:30).
*The Tiffin Cardinal was held on Saturday, one of the state’s premier running events of the season. Tecumseh and Bethel
The Tecumseh girls’ finished 20th overall in the girls Division One race, with the top finisher being Morgan Crowley, placing 73rd overall with a time of 21:48.41, while Danielle Franklin finishing 95th (22:02.19) and Natalie Allen, who ran a 22:33.65, good enough for 127th. Breanna Crowley also finished 136th.
In the boys race, Tecumseh placed 27th, with Garrett Gemmaka finishing 98th (18:31.16), while Ethan Adams ran 144th (19:01.12), Caleb Ricks 168th (19:23.88) and Jack Dague 172nd (19:26.95).
Also for the the Bethel Bees , the girls finished in 45th place with 1332 points. The boys were split into two teams and in the varsity B race the bees finished in 26th place with 774 point and the boys in the varsity A race finished in 33rd place with 851 points.
The girls were led by Kaitlyn Balkcom in 245th place in a time of 25:33.8. She was followed by Kaylee Baugh in 249th place in a time of 25:44.6, Eili Wright in 294th place in a time of 28:11.0, Morgan Jergens in 307th place in a time of 29:14.5 and Olivia Norris in 318th place in a time of 31:40.9.
The boys in the varsity B race were led by Max Schell in 135th place with a time of 22:50.8. He was followed by Sam Pencil in 163rd place in a time of 25:21.5, Brandon Gilbert in 167th place in a time of 26:00.9, Joel Ricker in 170th place in a time of 27:23.5 and Jacob Vantilburg 171st place in a time of 27:24.4.
The boys in the varsity A race were led by Korry Hamlin in 19th place in a time of 16:52.2. He was followed by Coleman Clark in 121st place in a time of 18:39.7, Chase Heck in 224th place in a time of 20:37.8, Connor Whelan in 245th place in a time of 21:14.6, Benton Wright in 251st place in a time of 21:31.6 and Brian Pencil in 277th place in a time of 22:45.4.
