A pair of Amelia freshman led the Barons’ to a second-place finish at the Bethel Invitational last weekend.

Maddie Walker and Morgan Walsh finished first and second, respectively, in the event, held at Bethel Middle School. Walker and Walsh also finished 1-2 at the Vern Hawkins Invitational last week in Georgetown.

Despite placing the top two runners overall and three in the top five, Amelia lost the team title to New Richmond. Four runners finished in the top ten for the Lions, who edged Amelia by one point.

Host Bethel finished a distant third. Junior Lucia Lopez finished 15th with sophomore Allison Parks right behind to lead the Lady Tigers. Western Brown finished fourth, thanks to a pair of runners in the top twelve. Freshman Sophie Leto earned a ninth-place finish while Carson Jones crossed the line 11th for the Broncos.

In the boys’ race, Bethel’s Jackson Coates outran Eastern’s Blake Rigdon for the victory. Josh Deaton finished 17th for Ripley to lead the Blue Jays to a ninth-place finish out of 19 teams. Western Brown finished eighth, led by sophomore Rob Conaty, who clocked a 19:24.45 to finish 16th.

New Richmond took home the team title by one point over Bethel. Eastern finished third with Amelia fourth.

In the junior high boys’ event, Blanchester’s Hunter Browning edged Bethel’s Sam Frondorf for the individual championship. Eastern would win the team title by five points over Batavia. Western Brown finished third. Host Bethel came in sixth place followed by Ripley.

On the girls’ side, New Richmond’s Molly Mulvaney won the 3K by 17 seconds over Miami Valley’s Avery Stewart. Her team would lose the team title to Eastern by four points. Western finished third in the girls’ junior high team standings as well.

Georgetown did not travel to Bethel last weekend, instead choosing to participate in the Cedarville Invitational hosted by Cedarville University. The girls’ middle school team placed sixth overall, led by Kati Colwell’s ninth-place finish. The boys’ team finished 13th out of 14 schools, failing to place any runner in the top sixty.

The Lady G-Men only had three varsity runners participate in the event, meaning they were unable to qualify for the team standings. Rachel Gibbons finished 108th out of 349 runners to lead Georgetown.

The boys’ varsity team took home a 14th-place finish out of 20 teams. Emerson Cahall clocked in at 18:30.43 to finish 50th out of 391 runners. Cahall’s time was roughly two minutes behind that of Fairfield’s Zach Birdsall, who came in first. Thomas Worthington High School placed five runners in the top ten to win the boys’ event and four in the top five to take home the girls’ title.

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By Garth Shanklin

gshanklin@civitasmedia.com

Reach Garth Shanklin at 937-378-6161 or gshanklin@civitasmedia.com.