By Chris Chaney
Sun staff

The Southern Buckeye Conference Meet on Saturday, Oct. 13 showed that the cream of the crop really does rise to the top when it matters most as some usual suspects had solid finishes to cap off their regular seasons.

In the girls’ race Goshen’s Brittany Clark took top billing individually as she finished ahead of Georgetown’s Kylie Watson and Amelia’s Madison Terry.

Goshen coach Ashley Adkins said coming into the race that she fully expected Clark to win the entire thing. Also providing a solid finish for the Lady Warriors was Courtney Turner who finished third in the American Division and fourth overall.

Breanna Keyser of Bethel-Tate finished fifth in the American and sixth overall.

However, while there were no individual members of the New Richmond team in the top four in the division, the Lady Lions would win the overall meet thanks in large part to a group of runners that included eight of the top 16 finishers in the American Division.

In the National Division girls’ race, Heather McIntosh of Williamsburg was finished in second place and Hannah Winter of Batavia came in third.

Also finishing well in the National Division race were Taylor Albright of Batavia, Lindsay Smith of Williamsburg and Cheyenne Trammel of Felicity.

With New Richmond as the overall team winners on the girls side, Georgetown finished second, Amelia came in third, Goshen came in fourth, Western Brown finished fifth, Batavia finished sixth and Bethel-Tate came in seventh.

The National Division on the boys’ side ended up having the burners as the top five finishers were faster than the best time in the American Division.

Behind Nick McAfee of Georgetown who ran a crazy-fast 15:57.72, the top five included Batavia’s Hunter Stith, Williamsburg’s Roger Thornberry, Blanchester’s Eric Hinkle and Batavia’s Griffin Stith.

New Richmond flipped the script and had strong finishes individually for the boys, but didn’t fare as well as a team as their female counterparts

Luke Gilday and Bobby Bingham finished first and second, respectively in the American Division, while Goshen’s Daniel Hulsmeyer finished third.

Bethel-Tate proved to be the most consistent team with seven runners finishing in the top 20 of the American Division to take home the crown.

Sumner Hobart, Adam Shinkle, Ashton Hutchinson, Jason Adams, Jared Iding, Brodey McConnell and Zane Copestick all ran sub-19:20s for the Tigers.

Behind Bethel in the American Division were Western Brown, New Richmond, Norwood, Goshen and Amelia, in that order.

In the National Division, the final standings were first, Georgetown, second, Batavia, third, Blanchester and fourth, Williamsburg.

The teams will now set their sights on the district meet at Pinehill Corwin-Nixon Park on Oct. 20. Divisions I-III will all race on the same day at the same course with regionals taking place a week later at Miami Valley Career Tech Center.