CHILLICOTHE — Miami Trace senior Blake Pittser and Washington junior Maddy Garrison won the South Central Ohio League’s final cross country championship titles Thursday, Oct. 13 at River’s Edge Golf Course in Chillicothe.
Pittser was first out of 93 runners in a time of 16:00.
Garrison beat 52 other runners to win with a time of 18:06.73.
Rayana Burns was third for Washington in 19:27.52.
In the team event, it was a tough, close second place for the Miami Trace boys team.
Wilmington won the SCOL title with 49 placement points.
Miami Trace was second with 52 placement points.
“I’m just proud of the kids,” Miami Trace head coach Jeff Smallwood said. “I don’t know if we could have ran a better race than we did tonight. Wilmington has a pretty solid team.
“We had three First Team, All-SCOL runners,” Smallwood said. “We got runner-up in the SCOL, which is disappointing to get beat by three placement points. The kids are disappointed.
“From where we began with this program over the past four years, we’ve got to be excited about it,” Smallwood said. “We’ve got some talented junior high kids coming up, including Bo Little, who won the SCOL (Wednesday, Oct. 12).
“We didn’t have a full team for the ladies, but, they ran well tonight,” Smallwood said. “I’m going to continue to try and improve our ladies’ numbers”
On the girls’ side, Chillicothe won the SCOL title with 27 points.
Washington was second with 52 points.
Washington sophomore Kameron Morris was his team’s top placer, finishing 13th in 17:22.
Also for Miami Trace: Simon DeBruin was ninth in 16:55; Nick Foody was 10th in 17:09; Henry DeBruin was 12th in 17:20; Wyatt Cory was 10th in 17:47; cole Enochs was 30th in 18:38; Jake Atwood placed 35th in 19:10; Todd Peterson was 41st in 19:19; Caleb Perry was 42nd in 19:22; Kody Burns was 51st in 19:47; Matthew Warner was 67th in 20:52 and Cole Howland placed 78th in 22:25.
Also for Washington: Josh Trimmer placed 21st in 17:58; Connor Lane was 25th in 18:13; Brandon Underwood was 29th in 18:34; Chris Conger was 31st in 18:45; Will Baughn was 33rd in 19:07; Collin George was 37th in 19:23; Kalub Wilkerson was 54th in 20:02; Ethan Stewart was 59th in 20:20; Nick Geiler placed 61st in 20:26; Cody Riley was 73rd in 21:28; Christian Grove was 88th in 23:45 and Keiya Sato was 90th in 24:24.
Abby Arledge was the first Miami Trace girl to finish the race, placing 23rd in 23:26.75.
Saylor Preston was 24th in 23:31.69; Kylie Pettitt was 31st in 24:36.13 and Kate Leach was 50th in 28:23.07.
Also for Washington: Megan Rohrer, 14th, 22:16.21; Catelyn Colter, 15th, 22:31.34; Alexa Harris, 19th, 23:40.25; Tahja Pettiford, 26th, 24:57.63; Ally Funari, 30th, 25:44.53; Haley Copas, 42nd, 26:26.54; Raven Haithcock, 44th, 27:07.67; Mallory Whitworth, 47th, 27:28.04; Abby Tackage, 51st, 28:44.36.
“Rayana Burns ran lights out today,” Washington head coach Ryan Day said. “It was so good to see her break out of the pack and push herself today.
“Congratulations to Maddy on winning the SCOL,” Day said. “She ran a great race.
“On the boys’ side, we had, I think six guys run under 20 minutes,” Day said. “By far, as a whole, this was our best meet of the season. Obviously, that’s what we want to do is peak here at the end of the season.
“Coach (Louis) Reid and I are very, very pleased,” Day said.
Washington and Miami Trace competed at Young’s Dairy in Yellow Springs Tuesday (Oct. 18) preparing for the District race Saturday at the University of Rio Grande. The boys race is at 3:30 p.m. and the girls at 4 p.m. Saturday.
SCOL Boys team results: Wilmington, 1st, 49; Miami Trace, 2nd, 52; Chillicothe, 3rd, 97; Hillsboro, 4th, 101; Clinton-Massie, 5th, 111; Washington, 6th, 119; East Clinton, 7th, 188; McClain, 8th, 225.
SCOL Girls team results: Chillicothe, 1st, 27; Washington, 2nd, 52; Wilmington, 3rd, 62; Hillsboro, 4th, 110; East Clinton, 5th, 117.
Complete results can be found at baumspage.com.