Sports Editor
Led by Amelia’s Maddie Walker and the New Richmond girls cross country team, Clermont County will be well represented at the regional tournament at Troy Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 31.
With all local teams competing at Voice of America Park in West Chester on Oct. 24 across three divisions, only five individuals and the Lady Lions team were able to advance to the regional tournament round.
Walker, Amelia’s top runner all season, posted the fastest girls’ time across all three divisions, easily winning the Division I district race by 14 seconds with a time of 18:16.6. Teammate Morgan Walsh finished in 12th place with a time of 19:55.4, which was good enough to move the freshman on to this week’s regional.
The Amelia girls’ team finished in 11th place in the second Division I race. The Baron boys finished in ninth place as a team and Justin Tavner was the highest finishing individual, running his race in 17:05.1, which was 20 seconds shy of the final qualifying spot.
Milford’s boys team finished in sixth place in the first Division I race, two spots out of qualifying. Senior A.J. Erdaty came in 22nd place, 12 seconds out of the final individual qualifying slot.
In Division II, the Lady Lions return to the regional tournament for the fourth consecutive year led by Caitlin Biehle and Emily Belmont. Biehle finished in second place in the first Division II race, posting a time of 20:08.8. Belmont came in 15th with a time of 21:11.4.
Shelbi Simpson, Claire Burns and Grace Hauserman all finished inside the top-50. Bethel-Tate was the only other local DII school to have five runners finish the race, led by Lucia Lopez who came in 22nd. The Lady Tigers were sixth.
On the boys side, the Tigers’ Jackson Coates will be advancing to regionals thanks to a second-place finish in the first DII race. He ran the 5k in 16:52.7. His team finished ninth overall.
Goshen was the top team among locals in boys DII, finishing in sixth place, one spot ahead of New Richmond. Goshen’s Grant Winterkorn finished in 19th and Luke Glenn of New Richmond came in 21st to lead their respective teams.
Batavia raced in the second DII race and finished in 11th as a team. Dylan Young came in 44th to lead the Bulldogs.
In Division III, Felicity-Franklin was the toast of the local racers advancing Jared Boeckmann and Kaitlin Sharp to the regional.
Boeckmann came in third place in the DIII race, running a 17:01.2 His team finished in seventh place.
Sharp came in 12th with a 22:27.6 to qualify comfortably.
The Lady Cardinals didn’t qualify enough runners to post a team score.
The Williamsburg boys team came in 10th and were led individually by Jeffery Schlueter who came in 37th.
The Lady Wildcats didn’t post a team score, but were paced by Sammi Tomlin.
The regional tournament will begin on Oct. 31 with the Division III girls race at 11 a.m.
Races will continue into the afternoon, wrapping up with the Division I boys race at 3 p.m.