Eyre 4-peats as district champion; Hauke twins qualify for regionals

The Whiteoak cross-country team competed in the Southeast District Division III races Saturday at the University of Rio Grande, where three individual runners advanced to regionals.

The Lady ’Cats ran in the first race of the day and got things off to a great start. Sophomore Addy Hauke finished 13th out of 116 runners to earn a spot in the regional meet next week at Pickerington. Hauke ran a personal best time of 21:46 to earn her second consecutive regional qualification and first-team All-District honor.  

“Addy just keeps stepping up and learning more and more about how good she is and how great she can be,” Coach Doug Hughes said. “Addy’s 21:46 is the best time ever ran at the district meet by a Whiteoak girl runner. Last week at league she accomplished the same feat for best league time ever. Next week at Pickerington, she can add to her list."

Shadowing Addy Hauke the entire race was her twin sister, Charli Hauke, who finished with a 21:47 and 15th-place finish. Charli Hauke joins her sister with all the postseason accolades and a trip to the regional meet in her first year of running.

“Charli was incredible today,” Hughes said. “Mapping the race, she looked to be about 25th in this race, and I was sure to let her know that. The Hauke girls have a lot of ‘I’ll show you,’ and well, Charli did just that.

“It's crazy that she was mainly [playing] volleyball all season and wasn't able to run very much or hit a lot of practices. She ran her personal best time by more than a minute, and Rio Grande isn't a place to do that, but she showed me."

In the boys race, Landen Eyre made Southeast District history by becoming a four-time district champion runner. Eyre raced to a personal-best 15:21.72 to outdistance the field of 152 runners.

“Landen was perfect today,” Hughes said. “To run a 15:21 at the district meet at Rio Grande, that's not the quickest course, and that's the lowest time I've ever heard of there for any division in nearly 30 years. There were 13 district races today for Division III runners all over Ohio, over 1,400 runners, and Landen had the best time out of all of them and next week he gets to face the kid that had the second-best time. It's going to be fun."

Eyre's 10th first-place finish of the season brings his season record to 1,704-1.

Whiteoak had six other runners tackle the Rio course. Freshman Aubrey Swafford was 81st (27:05). In the boys race, Keegan Eyre was 68th (19:24), and Shane Mitchell-Cox finished 71st with his personal best time this season of 19:36.

Kenyon Hughes in 113th (21:45), Shawn Mitchell-Cox in 116th (21:53) and Austin Richards in 136th (23:54) rounded out the WHS runners.

“These kids all finished their seasons today, and each one made me proud of their efforts,” Hughes said. “Some ran their final race, some their first district race, but all can hold their head high."

Eyre, Hauke and Hauke will run next Saturday at Pickerington North High School in the Division III Regional Meet.

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