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The conditions on the Troy levee certainly left more than a few runners looking bedraggled. The Jills weren’t among them. Oakwood’s 1-2-3 finish from sophomore Grace Hartman, freshman Bella Butler and senior Elizabeth Vaughn gave the program a clean sweep of regional championships. Hartman defended her individual title. The Jills also won the team title, the first regional championship for the girls program.
“We were going into it just hoping to qualify for state, which we thought we could do,” said Hartman, who repeated in 18:07.5. “It was really awesome to say we won regional. It means a lot.
“It’s been super incredible having a bunch of great girls. … We’ve all been working together and it’s a great dynamic. We’ve built on that and the postseason has been coming together well. We hope to finish it off well, too.”
Oakwood, ranked No. 3 in the Ohio Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches state poll, advances to the state championships at National Trail Raceway in Hebron on Saturday. Tippecanoe’s girls also qualified in D-II.
“We’ve really got a lot of strength up front,” Flaute said. “That was our goal to get them to go 1-2-3. The real improvement came with our fourth and fifth-place girls ran a big PR. That was the key.”
Butler finished second in 18:31.3 and Vaughn third in 18:34.4. Freshman Abby Snodgrass (20:31.0) was 24th overall and junior Lily Kaval (21:25.2) finished 55th. Freshman Katy Butler (21:33.1) was 56th and sophomore Cat Svobodny (23:04.3) 79th.
“You always just want to do as well as you can,” Vaughn said of the expectations at state. “But it’s always great running with that extra motivation (of competing for a team title), the team motivation realizing every point counts. … It’s a great group of girls and we’re excited for next week.”
Beavercreek placed four girls among the top five runners overall to repeat as D-I champs. Last season Beavercreek edged Lakota East by four points to win. The Beavers won by 52 points this time. Springboro also qualified, taking the fifth and final spot.
Beavercreek senior Taylor Ewert repeated as the D-I champ in 17:19.4. Senior Savannah Roark (second), junior Juliann Williams (fourth) and senior Jodie Pierce (fifth) were joined by senior Kendall Hobbs (23rd), sophomore Grace Daily (59th) and sophomore Megan Nowe (73rd).
“Of course we do have a target on our back. But if anything we’re working harder,” Ewert said of the Beavers, ranked No. 1 in the state. “ … At the end of the day state is going to be a level playing field and everyone is going to show up on top of their game. We need to perform just as hard and as if we weren’t coming in as the defending state champs.”
Fort Loramie and Versailles qualified for state in D-III girls.
In the boys meet, Carroll won the D-II regional title highlighted by junior Kevin Agnew’s championship (16:35.7). He was joined by senior Grant Arnold, senior Michael Osgood, junior Drew Maxwell, senior Andrew Connair, freshman Seth Tivakaran and senior Luke Wittmann. Waynesville also advanced.
Beavercreek, Lebanon and Tipp qualified for state in D-I.
Anna and Botkins qualified in D-III boys, highlighted by Anna sophomore Lucas Smith’s regional title.
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