The opposite is the case with winter sports as Cole reported 153 students on this year’s rosters for the winter, up slightly from last year’s 142.
Braves teams captured two Southwest Ohio Conference championships this fall as both the boys and girls cross country teams won their titles and proved to be the school’s standout performers, advancing as a team from the district races to the regionals. Both teams then sent their top runners to the state competition.
Kiefer Bell and Hannah Lippincott were both named Athlete of the Year in the SWOC for their respective cross country efforts. Both finished their seasons at the state competition, where Bell took third place, overall, and Lippincott was 64th in a talented field. It was Bell’s third consecutive appearance at the state championship race and Lippincott was there for the second year in a row.
“Kiefer ran at state and the runner who beat him, set a state record,” Cole said. “Both are seniors. We’re going to miss them.”
Cross Country Coach Paul Stiver was named SWOC Coach of the Year for both teams, as well.
Talawanda had another district qualifier in boys’ team golfer Ty Huber.
Talawanda teams finished with three second-place finishes in SWOC play as volleyball put together a solid season to finish in runner-up position. Volleyball has a bright future as next year will see the rise of a freshman class which finished this fall with an undefeated eighth-grade volleyball season. They were also without any losses a year ago in seventh grade, also, winning back-to-back SWOC titles.
The two Talawanda soccer teams accomplished a memorable effort by both winning first-round postseason tournament games. The boys’ team was another of the Brave teams to finish in second place in the SWOC, while the girls’ team captured fourth place.
The boys’ golf team also brought home second-place honors.
Girls’ tennis finished third in the league while girls’ golf was fourth and football was fifth.
Field hockey finished with one victory, pulling that off over Walnut Hills while playing on Miami University’s Field Hockey Turf field.
Cole also reported on the academic accomplishment of the school’s fall athletes as 47 percent of them earned a grade point average of 4.0 or higher. He said 71 percent of them earned Academic All-League recognition with grade point averages of 3.5 or higher and 89 percent finished with grades of 3.0 or higher.
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