Blake Rigdon
Blake Rigdon

By Wade Linville –

The Eastern High School boys and girls cross country teams headed to the Division III Regional Championship Meet at Pickerington after performing well enough at the Oct. 22 Southeast District meet at Rio Grande to move on.
The Eastern Warriors were led with a third place individual finish by Blake Rigdon to place third of 26 teams and earn a berth in the Division III Regional Championship Meet at Pickerington.
Rigdon posted a finish time of 16:41.38 to finish third of 196 runners at the district meet, while also placing among the top 10 were Eastern juniors Logan Lainhart (ninth, 17:34.34) and Garyn Purdy (17:35.06).
Eastern freshman Cy Young placed 29th with a finish time of 18:16.39, and rounding out the Warriors’ top five individual runners was freshman Ian Wiles, who placed 38th with a finish time of 18:45.09.
Fairfield (Leesburg) finished as the Division III district champions at Rio Grande with a team score of 42, followed by Rock Hill in second with a score of 76, and Eastern in third with a score of 81.
The Eastern Lady Warriors also advanced to the Division III Regional Championship Meet after finishing among the top seven teams in the district meet at Rio Grande.
The Lady Warriors finished sixth of 18 teams to earn a berth in the regional meet, led to the finish line by freshmen runners Camryn Pickerill and Juanita Frost.
Pickerill placed 11th on the field of 166 runners with a finish time of 21:31.46, while Frost ran for a 14th place finish with a time of 21:37.73.
The third member of the Eastern High School girls team to reach the finish line was freshman Emily Fannin, who placed 30th with a time of 22:42.87.
Finishing 85th overall was Eastern’s Abby Gillispie with a time of 25:19.45, while rounding out the Lady Warriors’ five scoring runners was sophomore Sierra Mitchell, who placed 135th with a time of 28:34.90.