Cross Country: Lakota East girls race to runner-up regional finish

The weather at the cross country regional championships in Troy on Saturday was less than ideal. Well, for most teams.

The 3.1-mile run in wet, windy and slippery conditions left more than a few runners muddy and miserable. The Lakota East High School girls weren’t among them.

»RELATED: Saturday’s high school roundup

The Thunderhawks raced to a runner-up finish in the Division I race to secure their third straight state appearance and fifth in program history. Lakota East scored 85 points to finish behind defending state champion Beavercreek’s 33.

“That’s the main goal, getting through to the state meet,” Lakota East coach Adam Thomas said of dealing with the conditions and the competition. “We were coming out here trying to make a run at Beavercreek but they ran a great race. We’re happy. We still have some work to do and hopefully run a little better at the state meet.”

Freshman Jocelyn Willis led the Thunderhawks in 11th place in 18:56.63. She was followed by junior Carly Spletzer (19:08.39), senior Danielle Horter (19:13.55), junior Kelsi Harris (19:15.83), sophomore Cali Reynolds (19:47.11), junior Paxton Oberhaus (19:49.43) and senior Hailey Wilson (19:53.56).

“(Friday) at practice we had a talk about you can’t change the weather. You have to embrace it,” Thomas said. “Coming in here we tried to get excited about running in it so that those teams that may not want to be here, maybe it gave us an advantage. Our girls came in focused.”

Lakota East entered the meet ranked No. 3 in the D-I state poll by the Ohio Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches. Beavercreek is No. 1 and Hilliard Davidson is No. 2. The Thunderhawks finished fifth at the state meet last season, and like the regional meet, are looking to move through the field again.

“Our goal with the group we have, if everybody runs their best race on the same day we have a shot at giving Beavercreek a run,” Thomas said. “At the very least we’d like to be on the podium.”

Also qualifying in the girls meet were Lebanon junior Faith Duncan (18:49) in D-I and Badin freshman Maura Mathews (19:31.6) in D-II.

In the D-I boys meet, Talawanda sophomore Kiefer Bell was determined to crack the top 20 to reach state. He finished 55th last season.

“I didn’t want to be just the 20th person. I wanted to get in there,” Bell said.

A determined Bell made his move around the two-mile mark as the runners climbed a steep hill. In the final half mile Bell started to pick off even more to finish ninth in 16:33.37.

“I was hearing people (tell runners they were) 14th, 15th and I knew I had it,” Bell said.. “I was nervous. I’ve been working toward this since the last regional meet when I wasn’t able to make it in. This was the goal. Hard work pays off.

“I knew with more training – I wasn’t doing the most I could’ve last year – so I knew if I did the most I could this year I could make it.”

The Lebanon boys finished fourth in D-I to qualify for state behind senior Sam Duncan’s third-place finish in 16:2148. Joining him were senior Thomas Clark (17:05.58), senior Aaron Guzman (17:16.75), junior Carter Davidson (17:24.25), freshman Jesus Trejo (17:36.46), freshman Jacob Fleig (18:03.28) and senior Zachary Packer (18:33.79).

Qualifying as individuals were Lakota West junior Zachary Beneteau (16:38.73) in D-I and Badin junior Owen Mathews (16:57.42) in D-II.

The state championships are at National Trail Raceway near Hebron on Saturday.

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