That was fitting. Beavercreek didn’t win any event — running or field — but placed high enough in most to best the field.
“That’s a big accomplishment for us,” Riekens reflected after the Beavers concluded the two-day meet Friday by edging host Fairmont to win the boys team title, 110.75-108.
“We don’t win many meets so we came out here and really showed what we’re made of going into the conference and district meets. That’s a big step for us.”
Kings (139) ran away from runner-up Bellbrook (78) to easily win the girls team title.
It was the last tune-up for next week’s regular-season-ending conference meets. After that the season-ending district, regional and state meets await.
Beavercreek’s boys will be hard-pressed to stay with Centerville and Wayne in next week’s Greater Western Ohio Conference meet at Troy, but winning at Fairmont was a confidence booster.
And the Beavers did it the hard way. Junior distance ace Ben Ewert ran alone at Mason on Friday in his distance specialties and sprinter Mike Chuck was given the week off after tweaking a knee in spring soccer, which he’ll also play at the U.S. Air Force Academy this fall.
Beavercreek had the boys team title wrapped up entering the final 4x400 relay. Fairmont placed third in the race to overtake Kings for second.
“This was very nice,” said second-year Beavercreek coach Jimmy Weckesser, the former distance standout at Centerville. “It’s going to be hard for us to beat Centerville (in the GWOC) but we can definitely get top three, so that’s the goal.”
• Fairmont junior Zach Harrah is part of an outstanding group of vaulters bunched in the Southwest District and particularly the GWOC. He broke in a new pole by soaring 15 feet to set a meet record and missed three good attempts at 15-4.
There are at least a half-dozen vaulters who have cleared 15 feet in the region, led by Greenville’s A.J. Frends (15-9) and Northmont’s Christian Champen (15-0), neither of whom was at Fairmont but were on Harrah’s radar.
“It’s a real tough area for vaulters,” Harrah said. “Ohio has really brought it this year. I need to break in my pole and work in my apex, which is the top of the vault. That will really help me get more hip height.”
• LaSalle (boys) and Notre Dame Academy (girls) were the team leaders after Friday’s first day of the Dayton Roosevelt Invitational at Welcome Stadium. LaSalle held a 95.5-47 advantage over runner-up Dunbar. Notre Dame led second-place Lima Senior, 100.5-82.
Friday’s running featured mostly distance events and relay finals, field events and running prelims. The meet concludes today with the remaining field events and some running prelims at 9:30 a.m. Running finals are scheduled to begin at noon.
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