Whiteoak cross-country wins McClain Opener
The Whiteoak Wildcats boys and girls cross-country teams were winners at the McClain Opener held at Mitchell Park in Greenfield on Tuesday.
In the boys event, WHS led with a first-place score of 27, followed by Miami Trace at 31 and McClain with a score of 69. The girls of WHS won with a score of 17, followed by McClain (41) and Miami Trace (49).
"I wasn't expecting this good of a start for our young team, but those boys ran their hearts out and really made this small meet very important to them," WHS head coach Doug Hughes said. "They pushed as hard as they could with very little outside motivation. This is my first full boys team in five seasons, and it feels good to watch them grow and improve from junior high to now the high school level."
Winning the boys varsity event was Miami Trace's Ross Matthews with a time of 19:34.5, followed by Whiteoak's Zach DeAtley as the runner-up with a time of 19:42.8.
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In all, there were 22 racers in the boys event, as the remainder of the Top 10 included: 3, Jake Atwood (MT), 19:44.5; 4, Atlee Carr (WHS), 20:05.5; 5, Nick Foody (MT), 20:26.0; 6, Jacob Campbell (WHS), 20:39.8; 7, Logan Cummings (WHS), 20:54.4; 8, Zach Shannon (WHS), 21:03.9; 9, Jacob Badgley (MHS), 21:27.5; and 10, Wyatt Cory (MT) 21:33.
Other WHS times for the boys included: Chase Butler (24:33.8) and Cody Adams (25:33.8). MHS racers in the event included: Jacob Roeder (22:03.7), Seth Cross (23:52.8), Kaleb Harper (25:06.3), Michael Ditmer (25:54.7), Noah Scott (27:25.8), Ryan Wilkin (27:39.0) and Brandon Adams.
The girls race consisted of 11 racers with WHS taking the top spot as Ashleigh Harless racing with a winning time of 21:52.9. WHS took the top four spots in the race with Morgan Thompson placing second at 21:56.4, followed by Kattie Taylor (25:30.4) and Maggie Carr (26:06.0).
"Ashleigh has really stepped it up in her senior year," Hughes said. "She logged a ton of miles this summer on her own time, and it has really paid off.
"I never would've guessed that she could go that low of a time this early in the season, and to have Morgan right with her gives us a great one-two punch which is a big factor in cross-country scoring."
Also for WHS, Regan Bohrer was seventh with a time of 27:39.4, and Katie Adams was eighth at 30:42.2.
For MHS, they had two runners in the event, placing fifth and sixth overall. Grace Savage was fifth at 26:45.0, and in sixth was Natalie Cunningham (27:27.2).