By ROB HAMILTON

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The Northmor Lady Knights advanced to regionals with a district championship at Watkins Memorial on Saturday.

Northmor won their Division III district race with 52 points to advance to next Saturday’s competition at Pickerington. Kristen Duryea finished third in 19:42.99 to lead the Knights, while Isabelle Ditullio took ninth in 20:26.07. Brooke Bennett was 13th in 20:36.58 and Samantha Peters ran 14th in 20:44.94.

Also, Reanne McDonald placed 21st in 21:19.72, Sydney Jennette was 26th in 21:49.58 and Selena Cortez finished in 28th place with a time of 21:57.85.

Also advancing to Pickerington are the Mount Gilead boys, who placed third in their district race. Austin Hallabrin paced MG by running second in 15:55.45. Casey White took 10th in 17:10.33 and Kyle Ciballi was 13th in 17:18.66.

Nick Weiss took 30th in 18:11.7 and Kyle White claimed 38th in 18:46.78. Also, Trevor Hall was 48th in 19:30.23 and Colton Clark placed 55th in 19:49.33.

All other Morrow County cross country teams competed in district races feeding into the regional meet hosted by Troy. In the Division III boys’ race leading to Troy, both Cardington and Northmor, as well as a Gilead Christian individual advanced.

The Pirates took first place in their race and were led by meet winner Jacob Long, whose first-place time was 16:25.6. Mike Queener was second in 17:06.67, Josh Queener took fifth in 17:29.17 and Quinn Maceyko placed sixth in 17:33.41. Greg Osborne finished 40th in 19:36.8, while Spencer Benson ran 48th in 19:57.24 and Jakob Edgell was 59th in 21:37.19.

For the Knights, who finished third in the race, Spencer Adams placed third in 17:26.42 and James Walker ran 11th in 17:50.85. Chase Hoover took 18th in 18:22.24 and Alec Moore finished 18th in 18:22.24. Also, B.J. White was 25th in 18:44.57, A.J. White finished 29th in 18:57.02 and Collin Berg ran 32nd in 19:05.08.

Also advancing to regionals from that race was Gilead Christian’s Brad Mohre, who took 12th place in 17:58.85. Individuals not on a qualifying team who placed in the top 16 of their race move on to regionals, as did the top four teams in each of the Division III and II events. The Eagles did not field a full team, but Sean Linder finished 33rd in 19:05.72 and Justin Jones took 51st in 20:06.41.

The Mount Gilead girls’ team also advanced to Troy in Division III, as they placed second in their race. Jenna Shipman was the individual runner-up, finishing in 19:59.08, while Hannah Bush took fourth in 20:18.76.

Darcy Picker placed ninth in 20:47.85 and Kelsey Snyder ran 15th in 21:23.67. Also, Jadyn Shipman finished 25th in 22:46.04, Savannah Randall took 28th in 23:09.49 and Micah James claimed 32nd in 23:29.88.

Also advancing to the regional meet in Troy were a pair of runners on the Highland girls’ team. In their Division II race, in which the Scots finished eighth as a team, Sophia Thompson placed ninth in 20:23.38 and Laura Spearman claimed 16th in 20:50.7 to keep their season alive.

Jena Buchholz took 44th in 22:24.57 and Elizabeth Jensen was 76th in 24:20.39 for the Scots, while Jenna Brown ran 80th in 24:44.64, Clarissa Dudgeon placed 92nd in 25:57.59 and Olivia Longhenry was 95th in 26:04.47.

Also running in the district races were the Highland boys, Cardington girls and an individual girl from Gilead Christian.

In the Division II race, Highland took 11th place with Collin Kipp running 40th in 18:28.7 and Tyler Bowen placing 51st in 18:45.84. Dalton Lee finished 53rd in 18:48.59 and Nick O’Bryant claimed 64th in 19:05.34. Also, Jacob Serio was 74th in 19:37.21, Jimmy Tebbe finished 86th in 20:32.55 and Jesse Matos claimed 95th in 21:29.61.

The Lady Pirates finished seventh in their Division III race with Sage Brannon running 27th in 23:07.4 and Bailey Shafer placing 37th in 23:44.75. Also, Alicia McElwee came in 40th place in 24:05.28, Jessica Shook was 45th in 24:40.72 and Ashlee Drury ran 64th in 37:41.

Gilead Christian’s Lindsay Millinger also ran in the Division III race, placing 52nd in 26:36.98.

Rob Hamilton can be reached at 419-946-3010, ext. 1807. Connect with him on Twitter at @SportsMCS