New Richmond, Batavia, and Bethel-Tate each earned a championship in Southern Buckeye Conference cross country competition.
Boys
American Division
Team scores and standings
New Richmond 16, Bethel-Tate 64, Western Brown 76, Goshen 87, and Amelia 121. Clermont Northeastern did not compete.
New Richmond literally ran away with the title by having the first four finishers.
Rylan Shebesta, New Richmond head coach, said, “At the beginning of the year We had trouble just finding runners and then Green and Bingham came out. I was surprised, but they got better all the year. At the league I was surprised they all ran that well.
“Ariapad, Gilday, and Gilman I knew from the beginning they would be our leaders.
“The league race was a total team effort. . . The future is unknown for the boys after this year. We’re just not getting a lot out for the team.”
National Division
Team scores and standings
Batavia 24, Georgetown 38, Blanchester 91, Williamsburg 98, and East Clinton 116. Felicity did not compete with a full five harrier squad.
All five of Batavia’s scorers, including the Stith twins, finished among the best eight finishers overall.
“This was fun for the seniors. They’ve been working hard all year. We’ve been runner-up the past several years in a row. The situation continued to improve for us all year this year,” said Dona Braswell, the Bulldogs’ head coach.
“Tim Knauer joined us a couple of weeks ago and was a major difference. . . The seniors have been injured all year. The Stith twins have been the core of the team.
“I see several years ahead of strong running at Batavia with the Stith brothers coming back and some other strong runners coming up.”
Girls
American Division
Team scores and standings
Bethel-Tate 45, New Richmond 47, Goshen 58, Amelia 88, and Western Brown 89.
The Tigers and the Lions have been edging each other out all season and of course the league meet is the showdown.
Said Bethel-Tate head coach Pam Taylor, “We tied with New Richmond once this year and we’ve beaten each other in races. The kids had it in their minds they were going to run as hard as they could and they did. I’m very happy for them because most of the team has been together since junior high.
“New Richmond is a good team. We went back and forth with them all season.
“We’re going to miss our seniors next year as runners and as people.”
Said New Richmond head coach Shebesta, “It was a solid effort by the girls. I’m very proud of them. Theism (Bethel-Tate) fifth girl ran a good race that made a difference. We’ve been battling in close races with Bethel all years. We knew this one would be close, too.”
National Division
Team scores and standings
Georgetown 23, Blanchester 42, Batavia 59, and Felicity and Williamsburg did not compete with a full five runner team.
Individual finishes and times of Clermont countians
Cheyenne Trammel of Felicity (third) 23:38.00, Cierra Isner of Batavia (seventh) 24:14.00, Lindsey Smith of Williamsburg (ninth) 25:13, Lindsay Shepherd of Batavia (13th) 27:14.00, Emma Wallace of Batavia (15th) 27:38.00, Emily Moon (16th) of Batavia 27:52.00, Becca Ewing of Batavia (17th), 27:54.00, and Cheyenne Smith of Batavia (20th) 29:53.00.