Locals shine at district showcase

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Olentangy Orange senior Hunter Moore and Buckeye Valley junior Zach Kreft each took home district titles at the Central District Cross Country Championships Saturday at Watkins Memorial.

Moore (15:16) helped the Pioneers to a third-place finish in the second section of the Division I race behind first place Hilliard Davidson and second place Lancaster — an effort good enough to advance to the regional tournament.

Senior Brandon Lane (18th, 16:28), sophomore Andrew Schroff (20th, 16:30), junior Jackson Schiefelbein (21st, 16:32) and senior Josh Brooks (22nd, 16:33) rounded out the top-five runners for Orange.

Newark and Dublin Coffman also finished in the top five to advance to the regional race.

Kreft (15:59), meanwhile, outpaced Liberty Union’s Kelton French by almost 32 seconds and was one of seven Barons in the top 20 of the second section of the Division II race.

Cameron Hurt (sixth, 17:07), Nathan Heiser (11th, 17:21), Bill Daily (14th, 17:30), Nathan Holst (16th, 17:33), Jacob Zinn (17th, 17:38) and Gavin Shearer (20th, 17:49) each finished in the top 20 for BV.

Granville took home the title by just three points. BV was runner-up and North Union, Highland and Licking Valley each advanced to the regional race as well.

Olentangy senior Anthony Sasso (15:53) qualified for the regional race with a fourth-place finish and Delaware Hayes senior Seth Kern (16:20) qualified individually with a 10th-place finish.

Olentangy finished sixth as a team and Delaware finished 10th out of 16 teams.

Olentangy Liberty junior Logan Boone (ninth, 16:27) and sophomore Joseph Johnson III (10th, 16:27) finished within a half-second of each other to pace the Patriots to a district runner-up showing in the first section Division I race.

Thomas Worthington took home the title and Pickerington North, Watkins Memorial and Teays Valley each punched tickets to the regional race. Junior Arjun Jha (15:16) took home the win for the Cardinals.

Senior Ryan Milligan (14th, 16:34), freshman Nick Ireland (18th, 16:39) and sophomore Adam Clark (22nd, 16:47) rounded out the top five for the Patriots.

Delaware Christian senior Zachary Fisher (18:14) finished 20th in the second section of the Division III race to qualify for the regional race while junior William Hefner (60th, 17:46) topped Big Walnut in the third section of the Division I race, but the Golden Eagles’ season came to a close as a team.

Gahanna Lincoln, Hilliard Bradley, Pickerington Central, Dublin Jerome and Dublin Scioto each qualified as teams in the race won by Pickerington Central junior Matt Scrape (15:21)

GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY

Liberty sophomore Gracie Sprankle (18:11) took home the top prize in the second section of the Division I race Saturday at Watkins Memorial.

Junior Emma Bower (18:33) came in second and freshman Linnea Kunesh (12th, 19:37), sophomore Emily Matta (17th, 19:48) and junior Addison French (23rd, 20:02) helped the Patriots take home the district title as a team.

Liberty beat out Thomas Worthington, Upper Arlington, Dublin Coffman and Dublin Jerome, who each qualified for the regional race.

Delaware Hayes senior Alicia Rittenour (13th, 19:41) and junior Ashley Woller (19th, 19:48) each individually qualified for regionals in the race.

Olentangy Orange sophomore Allison Guagenti (18:15) finished district runner-up in the first section of the Division I race, but it was junior Kayeluizhi Pugazhenthi (39th, 21:49) that ended up being the difference as the Pioneers took home a third-place finish as a team thanks to her tie-breaking finish.

Junior Zoe Bond (10th, 19:27), sophomores Lindsay Ott (13th, 19:36) and Grace Frye (26th, 20:42) and freshman Olivia Dieckmann (32nd, 21:13) helped Orange to a tie with Marysville for third place behind Hilliard Davidson and Watkins Memorial.

Pugazhenthi’s time gave the Pioneers the tiebreaker.

Worthington Kilbourne came in fifth to qualify for regionals as a team in the race won by the Wildcats’ India Johnson (17:55).

Big Walnut freshman Colbi Borland (16th, 19:53) qualified individually for the Eagles, who finished seventh to wrap up their season as a team.

Olentangy was a district runner-up in the third section of the Division I race, behind title-winner Gahanna Lincoln.

Sophomore Lex Brookshire (seventh, 19:05), junior Melina Endsley (13th, 19:28), freshmen Piper Biziorek (17th, 19:42) and Meghan Boggess (20th, 19:49) and junior Katie Slyh (32nd, 20:27) helped Olentangy finish ahead of Pickerington Central, Hilliard Darby and Westerville Central.

Junior McKenna Frye (18:27) took home the district title for the Warhawks.

Last week was the first time the Buckeye Valley boys and girls cross country teams won the MOAC in the same year.

This week marks the first time that both the boys and girls teams advanced to the regionals in the same year.

The Barons finished fifth behind Granville, Liberty Union, Bexley and Johnstown-Monroe to qualify in D-II.

Junior Susie York (23rd, 20:56), freshman Lane Graham (24th, 20:57), sophomore Kennedy Cramer (33rd, 21:30), sophomore Izzy Parish (42nd, 22:15) and Carissa Nickell (50th, 22:40) topped BV.

Junior Syndee Mangette (18:33) took home the individual district title for the Lions.

VOLLEYBALL

The Delaware Christian volleyball team continued its season of domination with a 25-14, 25-10, 25-11 victory over visiting and ninth-seeded Gahanna Christian in the third round of the Division IV district volleyball tournament Saturday in Delaware.

The top-seeded Eagles (22-2) set the school record for wins in a single season and will make their third straight district semifinal appearance.

Brianna Blackburn had 25 assists and three aces, Abbey Evans had nine digs, eight kills and a pair of aces and Mary Kerins led with 14 digs as each of the seniors played on their home court for the final time.

Freshman Lyssi Snouffer led DCS with 15 kills and seven aces and added eight digs as well.

DCS plays fifth-seeded Grove City Christian Thursday night at 6 p.m. at Westerville Central.

BOYS SOCCER

For 73 minutes it looked like the biggest upset of the boys soccer tournament.

But the Olentangy Liberty boys soccer team scored three goals in the final six minutes to knock off visiting and 32nd-seeded Briggs 3-1 in the second round of the Division I district tournament Saturday night in Powell.

Oliver Person found Caleb Sayre to tie things up for the Patriots in the 74th minute before Person scored the game-winner in the final two minutes.

Stephen Psyhogios scored the third goal in the final minute.

Eighth-seeded Liberty travels to fifth-seeded New Albany Wednesday night at 7 p.m.

Also: New Albany 2, Big Walnut 1

By Michael Rich

[email protected]

Follow Michael Rich on Twitter @mrichdelgazette.

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