On Saturday the Wildcats traveled to Lebanon for the Running Warrior Invitational. The heat from this past week finally broke and temperatures were cooler but the humidity was still daunting. Our runners took on the challenge along with a hillier course than last weekend and what was again some great competition from some of the top teams in the state that will be competing for OHSAA championships come November.

The boys race got off to a quick start and once again Connor Green went out with the lead pack, passing through the first mile marker in a time of 5:01. He kept up the pace through mile two, hitting the marker at the 10:36 mark. With a couple of short downhill sections and a sprint to the finish on the turf Connor came through in 8th place with a time of 16:42. He was followed by James Huff (18:46), Oliver Crossthwaite (19:22), Daniel Osborne (20:24), and Donaven Butler (21:40) to finish out the scorers for the Wildcats. Donaven is continuing a trend of spectacular races setting PR’s of over a minute. This may have been Donaven’s most impressive race yet though as he finished more than a full 6 minutes faster than at the same race last season. Titus Routson also improved in his second race, carving almost two minutes off his time from last week, and setting a new PR of 29:45. Impressive performances were also turned in by freshman Connor Cole (21:44) and Caleb Osborne (22:30).

The girls had another great day in the office. All of the girls had competition to run with. Laila Black came in first for the ladies with a time of 24:01. She was followed by Bryley Wulff (24:50) and right on her heels, just 2 places behind was Kydee Shults with an impressive performance and PR of 24:55. Sarah came in 4th for the Lady Wildcats with a time of 25:25 and Julionnya Mccall rounded out the team by running her first ever cross country race (35:06). This was the first time the girls were able to score as a team this year.

Saturday the Wildcats travel to the Athletes in Action campus in Xenia to compete in the Legacy Ambassador Invitational. This is a great spectator friendly course and the weather is looking good for some continued improvement and hopefully new PR’s for many of our runners.

Congratulations also go out to Connor Green for being named as male SWBL athlete of the week for this week. This honor goes to one male and one female athlete chosen from all fall sports athletes in the SWBL. Connor will receive an AOW t-shirt, along with a $25 gift card in addition to recognition on the SWBL website.