After a seemingly lengthy time away from running competitive races, the local cross country season returned to its normal programming Saturday on a beautiful day for races.
Bellmont teams competed at the Celina Rotary Invitational on the Lake Campus of Wright State as the boys finished in sixth place and the girls in seventh. Fort Laramie won the team race on the girls’ side, while Bryan won the boys’.
Freshman Hudson Krull took 20th place overall to lead the Braves with a time of 18:39.
“Times were vastly improved from our opening meet at Norwell,” noted head coach Randy Hisner of Bellmont. “Most of our guys cut over a minute and some cut as much as a minute and a half.”
While Hisner admitted that some of those gains came from a better course and better weather, he maintained that there was significant improvement all around for his team.
“The guys have worked hard for that improvement,” he said.
Krull was impressive in just his second high school race, as he led the team for the first time, taking home a 20th-place ribbon (out of 122 runners) in 18:39. Harry Gunsett was close behind in 23rd (18:50), and sophomore Hayden Whittenbarger was right there in 24th in the same time, cutting a remarkable 1:20 from his previous career best.
Landon Rich bounced back nicely from a sub-par race at Norwell with a strong 19:03 for 29th. Maddux Miller rounded out the scoring in 37th with a season-best 19:36.
Freshman Logan Whitacre continues to impress. He knocked off 1:14 from his Norwell time as the team’s sixth man, finishing in 20:28. Senior Caleb Adams set a new career best by over 30 seconds with his 20:58.
Sophomore Cayden Rauch also set a new career best by 40 seconds of 21:27.
Owen Adams, a freshman, beat his Norwell time by over three minutes, going 21:32. Other Bellmont finishers:
68th Ethan Curtis, 21:32
101st Cole Sipe 23:49
120th Jackson Hicks 29:40
122nd Ty Loshe 32:04
For the girls, it was sophomore Abigail Rudy out front, finishing in 23:58 in 30th place. She crossed the line just ahead of Keeley Carpenter (24:03 in 31st).
Madison Witte was 38th in 24:59 and Bre Feasel finished 41st in 25:08.
A pair of freshman, Bridget Juengel and Lilly Franz, made big strides from where they were at Norwell. Juengel was 58th in 26:54 and Franz 64th with a time of 27:27.
The Bellmont Middle School team also competed in the event. The top two-mile time for Justin Ayres’ boys was Emmett Glenn at 12:46 and for Christy Blythe’s girls, Grace Ruble at 14:56. Just behind Ruble was Sydney Angel in 14:57.