Lady Indians win FAC meet; Hillsboro’s Corbin Winkle wins boys conference event

The Hillsboro Lady Indians won the four-team Frontier Athletic Conference Meet on Saturday at Jackson High School.

HHS totaled 33 points in the win, followed by Chillicothe (35), Miami Trace (72) and McClain (98).

Jackson and Washington didn’t field a full team for the girls event.

The girls race saw Hillsboro’s Taylor Thoroman place second overall at 21:29, and Jailyn Williams was fourth place at 22:12.

HHS had three more girls runners in the top 10, those being Ramsey Haines in eighth place (23:08), Kennedy Sexton in ninth place (23:27) and Brooklyn Lucarello in 10th place (23:46).

Hillsboro’s Olivia Covault placed 13th with a time of 24:11, followed by Abbey Letts in 14th place (24:15). In 16th place was Bree Bailey at 24:34.

Other times for HHS in the girls race were: Brynne Holsted in 27th place (27:04), Claire Winkle in 34th place (28:17) and Sophia Mezo-Mil in 43rd place (31:38).

Rob Snavely, the head coach for the Lady Indians, praised the runners who finished in the top of his teams standing. “All year long we have had strong runners at the top,” he said. “However, our true strength is our depth. It showed today. I knew going in that one of our top two runners had to come in at least second place and that our 3-7 runners had to beat runners from Chillicothe that they hadn’t beat all year. When it mattered the most, they all stepped up.

“I have the utmost respect for Coach Stone and Chillicothe’s program,” Coach Snavely continued. “When we set goals at the beginning of the year, we know it will take every workout and every athlete’s best to beat them. It’s been very close the last couple of years, and we have been fortunate to be on the winning side.”

The top finisher for the McClain Lady Tigers was Brooke Baldwin in 17th place (25:11), followed by Katrina Sturgeon in 18th place at 25:27.

McClain’s Laura Barber finished in 26th place (27:02), and in 28th place was Sierra Barton (27:11). In 33rd place for MHS was Liv Stegbauer (28:12), and Ashley Mitchell finished in 37th place (29:05).

Other MHS finishers included: Bailey Mitchell in 40th (29:34), Laura Stevenson in 45th place (34:46), and Vada Ponder in 46th place (35:07).

In the boys event, the FAC champion was Chillicothe at 31 points, with the runner-up of the five-team event being the Hillsboro Indians with a score of 46. The rest of the boys team standings included: Jackson (72), Washington (104) and Miami Trace (108).

For the HHS boys, Corbin Winkle won the FAC event with a time of 16:42.00.

Hillsboro’s coach, Ed Letts, praised Winkle’s performance and what is to come. “Corbin is really coming on strong at the right time,” Letts said. “He’s chomping at the bit for the District Meet, and I can’t wait to see how he responds to that next level of competition.”

Also in the top 10 for HHS were Rason Brunck in seventh (18:00, All-FAC) and Ryan Howland in eighth place (18:16).

Other runners for the Indians were: Chris Sowders in 13th place (19:19), Cooper Swope in 19th (19:49), Jacob Schommer in 50th (25:05) and Jayden Wells in 52nd (25:55).

Letts is optimistic that his team can advance to the Regional Finals if his team continues to improve in their performances. “I thought Ryan had his best race of the season,” he said. “If he can replicate that effort at districts, we’ll have a good shot advancing to regionals.”

McClain’s top finisher was Dart Stovall in 32nd place (21:26).

Other finishers for the Tigers included: Nicholas Alvarez in 41st place (22:44), Robert Surritt in 45th place (23:09), Zach Scales in 47th place (23:55), Nathan Alvarez in 53rd (25:57), Jesse Van Hoose in 55th place (28:00), Max Colburn in 56th place (28:21) and Avery Truman in 57th place (32:00).

(Rob Snavely contributed to this article.)