Competing in her second state cross country meet as a sophomore, Cardington’s Loey Hallabrin earned her second All-Ohio placement.
Hallabrin took 19th place in the Division III girls’ race with a time of 19:20.5 in the first year the state meet was held at Fortress Obetz. At previous location National Trail Raceway, she was 13th last year.
“I feel awesome,” she said. “I wasn’t sure how I’d do this year. The weather was really good — I was just exhausted after the first half mile.”
She noted the change of venue was a mental hurdle she had to overcome.
“With National Trail, it was in my head it was the state meet because it was the first year for me, so this was weird.”
After racing alone last year, Hallabrin brought her team with her this year. Overall, the Lady Pirates took 19th in the race. Coach Erik Kyrk noted that one of the team’s runners, Gracie Meade, wasn’t allowed to compete due to being in quarantine, which had an effect on their overall result.
Morgan White placed 116th in 21:29.4, while Hazel Jolliff took 149th in 22:29.6. Mikayla Linkous ran 170th in 24:04.1, Madison Brehm claimed 175th in 27:07.2 and Marlo Young claimed 176th in 27:39.9.
Kyrk has optimism for the future with his girls’ team. While Brehm and Young are seniors, the team’s top five runners are all underclassmen, giving him hopes for more trips to the state meet in the future.
“That does give us a bit of hope,” he said. “And I hope we can recruit and get more.”
In the Division III boys’ race, Cardington’s lone runner wound up an All-Ohioan. Senior Mason White finished in 15th place overall with a time of 16:19.3.
“He did well,” said Kyrk. “He was in there. The race had some really great runners. Tough competition.”
White felt he didn’t finish the race as well as he could have, as the one hill on the course comes late in the race and had an effect on his closing kick.
“It felt pretty good,” he said. “That hill back there’s killer. Those guys had more kick than I did and they deserved it.”
White noted that the race had a quick pace, which worked for him, as he likes to get out to fast starts.
“The mile was quick,” he said. “It’s the state meet, so everything is quick. I felt I was in a good spot. Those guys were second-half racers and I try to get out ahead.”
Northmor also competed in the Division III boys’ race and placed 19th as a team with 446 points.
Kooper Keen finished 120th in 17:38 to lead the Golden Knights on the day, while Lucas Weaver placed 128th in 17:43.6. Griffin Healea took 134th in 17:50.7, Ryan Lehman placed 139th in 18:02.3 and Connor Radojcsics earned 140th place in 18:02.6. Also, Bryce Cooper ran 168th in 18:51.6 and T.J. Diehl took 172nd in 18:56.6.
Highland competed in the two Division II races, with two boys and one girl running for the Scots.
In the boys’ race, Hunter Bolton took 54th place with a time of 16:57.3, while Joel Roberts took 76th in 17:14.2.
For the Lady Scots, Camberly Schade returned to the state meet to claim 63rd place with a time of 20:08.9.
