Photo by Andrew Grimm. Conner Starr of Barnesville crosses the finish line to win the boys race at the OVCCL Kickoff Meet at Buckeye Local on Tuesday.
CONNORVILLE – The cross country season got off to an exciting start Tuesday night on the field surrounding Buckeye Local High School.
The Panthers hosted the annual Ohio Valley Cross Country League kickoff meet and it was a good day for the southern schools as Belmont County runners won both the individual titles and an overall team title while Edison’s girls took home a team title to tie Belmont’s victory. Several local runners turned in strong performances.
GUYS
Conner Starr of Barnesville led the field by nearly nine seconds, running a time of 16:53.54 in the 5K race, beating Micah Kramer of Linsly (17:02.45) and Connor Bendo of Union Local (17:17.46) to finish on top of the podium.
Big Red’s Owen O’Brien began his final season with a time of 17:33.29, finishing in fourth place.
Completing the top 10 were George Dormas (17:56.58) of St. Clairsville, Shepherd Richey (17:56.80) of Barnesville, Gavin Reese (17:57.34) of Martins Ferry, Kai Brehm (18:00.19) of Bellaire, Luke Hastings (18:12.47) of Martins Ferry and Darrian Bertram (18:12.61) of Linsly.
Other local team leaders included Sam Doerr of Indian Creek, who finished 12th with a time of 18:27.85; Brock Koehnlein of Edison, who finished 17th with a time of 18:45.29 to lead the Wildcats; Cash Dobson of Catholic Central, who finished 22nd with a time of 19:05.11; Tyler Garnbrant of Harrison Central, who finished 24th with a time of 19:17.22; and Aydrion McGee of Buckeye, who finished 26th overall with a time of 19:23.84.
The Purple Riders led the team portion with four finishers in the top 15. The Ferry runners averaged 18:31.05 with their top seven finishers. That mark was just over 19 seconds better than second-place Bellaire, which was tied with Barnesville (third place). St. Clairsville finished fourth, Linsly fifth, Big Red sixth, Edison seventh, Union Local eighth and Buckeye Local ninth. Three other teams did not have enough finishers for a team score.
About 83 runners took part in the boys’ part of the event.
GIRL
Chloe Meholvitch, a sophomore from Shadyside, took the lead early in the race and outpaced the rest of the 82-runner field in the girls’ race by more than half a minute, completing the course in 19:57.39. Taylor Tucker of Martins Ferry was second in 20:31.61 and Mallory Brake of River rounded out the podium in 20:38.51.
Other top 10 finishers included Faith Moore (20:54.50) of Union Local; Luci Banks (21:12.34) of St. Clairsville; Kayla Edgar (21:28.50) of Bellaire; Annie Board (21:35.00) and Josie Lesnansky (22:02.87) of Edison; Liz Mayer (22:11.33) of Bellaire; and Madison Oberle (22:15.43) of Martins Ferry.
Leading the local teams were Big Red’s Gena Smith (22:18.45), who edged teammate Natalie Romanyak into 11th place, Indian Creek’s Calista Cozart, who finished 16th with a time of 23:03.73, and Catholic Central’s Zoe Wise, who finished 25th with a time of 23:44.90.
Edison defeated Shadyside in the team competition to prevent all trophies from going to Belmont County. The top seven Wildcats averaged 22:44.02 and finished with six of the seven in the top 20 overall.
Bellaire finished third, Indian Creek fourth, Linsly fifth, Barnesville sixth, St. Clairsville seventh, Big Red eighth, Harrison Central ninth and six other teams did not have enough participants for a team score.
Intermediate
The event began with middle school runners running a two-mile course. River’s Landon Indermuhle defeated Bishop John King Mussio’s Patrick Morrow in the boys’ portion, 11:48-12:23, in a field of 47 runners. Martins Ferry was the top runner on the boys’ side. On the girls’ side, Union Local’s Jamie Bolon finished top with a time of 13:50, while Shadyside won the team race. Steubenville’s Harding Middle School finished third overall.
