Olentangy Orange sophomore Brooke Chapman won the girls’ varsity race while senior Matthew Schroff finished just outside the top 10 on the boys’ side to highlight area performers at Saturday’s Bear Den Dash at Olentangy Berlin.
Chapman crossed the finish line in 18:05.90 to take top honors — a mark a fraction of a second better than Dublin Jerome’s Natalie Fouts’ 18:06.00.
Perrysburg’s Hannah Kersten finished almost 30 seconds back, smoothing out the top three in 18:34.20.
Orange, which also got standout showings from Mairin O’Brien and Clea Case, finished fifth in the final team standings. Big Walnut was sixth overall while host Berlin was 11th among the 20 teams in action.
O’Brien finished 13th among individuals with an effort of 19:17 while Case wasn’t far behind, finishing 15th overall in 19:25.60.
Grace Heitkamp led the Bears, finishing eighth in 19:05.20, while Georgia Speelman finished 20th in 19:43.80.
Leigha Kay powered the Golden Eagles, finishing 30th in 20:06.20 while Zara Barton finished 34th in 20:14.
Orange also had multiple top-20 performers in the boys’ varsity race. Schroff led the charge, finishing 11th in 15:49.40, while Saketh Rudraraju and Bradyn Allender closed 14th and 20th with respective efforts of 15:55.30 and 16:02.90.
The Pioneers finished fourth in the final team standings. Olentangy Liberty was sixth, Big Walnut finished 14th and Berlin closed 17th in the 28-team field.
Patriot standouts included Gordon Kimberly (28th in 16:21.50), Sam Brockbank (40th in 16:34.30) and Hani Deen (41st in 16:35.10).
The Golden Eagles got solid showings from Emil Stanford (19th in 16:01.20) and Eli Lengl (31st in 16:26.60) and the Bears got a boost from Vansh Sethi (56th in 16:45.50).
LONDON INVITATIONAL
Luke Brown finished fourth on the boys’ side and Abbie Boey finished third in the girls’ race to lead the Delaware Hayes cross country teams to top-three finishes at Saturday’s London Invitational.
Brown followed a trio of Hilliard Darby runners across the finish line, closing in 17:51.40. Chase McMahon (seventh in 18:21.80), Carter Berghauer (11th in 19:05.70), Jonah George (13th in 19:09.10) and Conrad Watkins (14th in 19:18.10) also nabbed top-15 showings for the Pacers, who finished second behind Darby in the final team standings.
Hayes’ girls, who finished third, were powered by Boey’s top-three finish (21:23.60). Other top performers included Reghan Gist (12th in 22:35.20), Gigi Leiter (15th in 22:46.10) and Sammy West (18th in 23:08.90).
