By ROB HAMILTON
The Northmor girls’ cross country team advanced to the state meet, hosted by National Trails Raceway on Saturday, by placing third at the Division III regional meet at Pickerington.
Northmor tallied 102 points to finish behind champion Garaway and second-place Fredericktown. Kristen Duryea paced the team by running sixth in 19:48.1, while Isabelle Ditullio ran 23rd in 21:02.7.
Samantha Peters took 26th in 21:15.3 and Reanne McDonald placed 38th in 21:40.6. Brooke Bennett was 48th with a time of 22:06.1, while Selena Cortez ran 51st in 22:11.5 and Sydney Jennette claimed 52nd in 22:11.7.
Northmor will run at 11 a.m. Saturday in the opening race of the state meet.
The only other local runners to compete at Pickerington were the Mount Gilead boys. The Indians finished seventh as a team with 164 points, but were able to send one runner off to the state meet.
Austin Hallabrin will compete in the Division III boys’ race at 1:30 p.m. thanks to claiming second place in his regional race with a time of 16:22.5.
Casey White placed 22nd in 17:22.7 for the Indians, while Nick Weiss took 45th in 17:56.2 and Kyle Ciballi ran 66th in 18:27.8. Kyle White took 76th in 18:36.2 and Trevor Ball ran 92nd in 19:23.7. Also, Colton Clark claimed 108th in 20:08.4.
The remainder of Morrow County’s regional runners participated in the regional hosted by Troy. While no teams advanced from that locale, two Cardington boys and one girl from Mount Gilead will run in the state meet.
As a team, the Pirates finished sixth with 152 points — three out of fifth place and 23 behind the fourth and final state-qualifying squad.
Jacob Long moved on by placing third in 16:13.6. He will be joined by teammate Josh Queener, who finished 13th in 16:42.3.
Mike Queener took 24th in 17:13.8, while Quinn Maceyko ran 32nd in 17:23.1. Also, Greg Osborne placed 115th in 19:12.3, Derek Goodman ran 123rd in 19:59.6 and Spencer Benson claimed 127th in 20:16.
Mount Gilead’s girls took seventh place with 178 points. Jenna Shipman advanced to the state meet by finishing 13th in 20:02.7.
Hannah Bush ran 25th in 20:28.5 for the Indians, while Darcy Picker took 34th in 20:49.6. Micah James ran 75th in 22:14.8 and Kelsey Snyder finished one spot behind in 22:19.6. Also, Jadyn Shipman was 81st in 22:29.9 and Hope Hack placed 115th in 25:39.7.
Also competing in the Division III boys’ race was Northmor, who took 13th with 336 points. Spencer Adams led the team by running 67th in 18:05.6, while James Walker was 68th in 18:05.7 and Chase Hoover took 79th in 18:22.6.
A.J. White was 101st in 18:42.4 and Alec Moore ran 103rd in 18:46.3. Also, B.J. White was 105th in 18:53 and Collin Berg ran 116th with a time of 19:18.3.
For Gilead Christian, Brad Mohre competed in the Division III regional and finished 100th in 18:41.8.
In the Division II girls’ race, a pair of Highland Lady Scots ran on Saturday. Sophia Thompson took 38th place in 20:30 and Laura Spearman ran 89th in 21:59.1.
Rob Hamilton can be reached at 419-946-3010, ext. 1807. Connect with him on Twitter at @SportsMCS
