On Saturday the Cross Country teams travelled to Indian Riffle Park in Kettering for the Neal Charske Firebird Invitational. It was a great morning to race with temperatures in the low 60's and low humidity as well. The course was more difficult than anticipated with hills, tight turns and tough competition, but our athletes brought their grit and determination. The races at this meet were organized using results from previous races throughout the season, and our teams were placed into the top division out of three, in both the men's and women's competitions.

The girls team was once again led by senior Kensi Black who turned in an 8th place finish out of 152 competitors, with a time of 19:37. She was followed by Brylee Wulff, the only girl on our team to come away with a new personal best on a tough course with a time of 23:48. Sarah Wallace (24:11), Kydee Shults (27:00), Laila Black (27:51), Riley Mullin (28:03) and Hailey Hitte (29:32) rounded out the scoring for our team.

In the boys race our team faced some of the top squads in our entire region once again this week. We were able to come away with a hard fought 6th place finish out of 22 teams, besting our SWBL divisional rival, Bellbrook, by 14 points. Chris Bond (16:37) and Connor Green (16:52) once again paced the team finishing in 16th and 20th respectively out of a field of 201 runners in the top race. They were followed by Carter Black (17:21), Austin Hitte (18:08), James Huff (18:13), Liam Acevedo (19:59) and Oliver Crosthwaite (20:05) to finish out the scorers for our team. Daniel Osborne (20:17) and Donovan Butler (25:42) came away with new PR's.

This upcoming Saturday, September 30th some members of our team will travel to Centerville for their Saturday Night Lights meet. This is one of the premier races in our region of the country with teams from multiple different states competing. This is a meet to look forward to every season with an atmosphere that is unmatched as thousands of runners race through Centerville's stadium multiple times under the lights, with the elite races beginning at 9:25pm (girls) and 9:55pm (boys).