On Saturday the Wildcat cross country teams travelled to beautiful Fort St. Clair park in Eaton for the SWBL championships. The morning threatened to be wet with showers early, but cleared up into a perfect day for racing and that is exactly what your Wildcats came to do.
The morning began with the girls varsity race where our ladies showed off their speed and determination to earn some new personal bests. Our team was led by Kensi Black who went out hard and continued to race all the way through the finish becoming the girls individual champion for the Southwestern division of the SWBL in a time of 19:20. She was followed by Bryley Wulff who ran a new personal best time of 23:20, Sarah Wallace (23:57), Kydee Shults with a new personal best of 25:42, Laila Black with a new personal best of 25:45, and Riley Mullin (27:07).
The boys race was set to be a showdown between the Wildcats and the Eagles of Bellbrook to see who would hoist the Southwestern Division Champions trophy. The boys came to race with a gritty determination and fought hard all the way. In the closing mile, some big passes were made and others held off to secure the championship, beating out Bellbrook by 9 points and securing the championship for the Wildcats. The team was led by Chris Bond (16:30) and Connor Green (16:36) with 2nd and 3rd place finishes in the southwestern division. They were closely followed by Carter Black (17:15) in 5th and Austin Hitte (17:39) in 9th. All of our top 4 boys earned first team all SWBL honors for their work and James Huff (18:17), who finished 13th, earned second team all SWBL honors. Oliver Crosthwaite (18:42) had a tremendous race, earning a new personal best by 1 minute and 22 seconds. Isaac Shults (24:01) and Donaven Butler (25:13) also came away with new personal bests in the JV race.
Next Saturday, October 21st, the Wildcats will travel to the Elvin R. King Cross Country Course at Cedarville University for the OHSAA Southwest District Championships. Kensi Black will look to improve upon her season best time that she ran earlier this year at that very course while the boys compete to qualify for the division I regional meet in Troy for the second consecutive year.
