SIDNEY — Lehman cross country coach Kyle Hermiller couldn’t have hoped for much more as Lehman hosted the Northwest Central Conference cross country meet Saturday.
The Lehman boys and girls swept the team titles.
The boys won the team title with 36 points, while Hardin Northern was second with 43.
“Our high school boys won their first meet of the year, and I am very proud that it came at the conference meet,” Hermiller said. “They really stepped it up today when it counted.”
Lehman got top five finishes from Chris Goettemoeller and Isaiah Winhoven. Goettemoeller was third in 17:59; and Winhoven was fifth in 18:55. Rounding out the Lehman runners were Brandon Simmons, 7, 19:03; Matt McDonald, 12, 19:44; Elias Bezy, 15, 20:18; Alex Vanderhorst, 20, 20:55; Blake Leffel, 21, 20:59; and Aaron Topp, 28, 20:05.
The girls race was just as good for Lehman.
The Lady Cavaliers won with 23 points and Hardin Northern had 33.
It also featured a showdown between Waynesfield-Goshen’s Bailie Barrington and Lehman’s Alanna O’Leary for the individual title.
Barrington won in 20:01, while O’Leary ran a season’s PR of 20:15 to finish second. O’Leary ran right with her until Barrington pulled away in the last mile.
“Coach has really been pushing me to run a faster second mile,” O’Leary said. “Coach had told me about her (Barrington) and I saw her at state track last year. She ran the 800 and I was running sprints. So, I figured it was going to be between us.”
So did Hermiller. But, he was happy with the races both O’Leary and Maria Schmiesing, who finished third in 20:43, ran for Lehman.
Rounding out the Lehman runners were Theresa Flood, 10, 24:24; Caitlin Swallow, 11, 24:45; Leah Peoples, 15, 28:07; and Miriam Bezy, 18, 29:39.
Riverside’s boys were led by EthanWillians in 13th place in 19:46. Evan Kauffman was 31st in 27:04.
For the Lady Pirates, junior Caitlyn Elliott was eighth in 23:42. Samantha Neely was 14th in 27:46.
GWOC
Sidney competed in the Greater Western Ohio Conference meet Saturday at Centerville.
The girls placed 13th with 383 points and were led by freshman Ana Adams, who placed 30th out of 119 runners in 20:10.8.
Mariana Kellner was 73rd in 22:56.1, Mikayla Smedley 88th in 24:49.7, Savannah Gerber 93rd in 25:24.9, and Meredith Martin 106th in 27:54.4.
The Sidney boys finished 12th with 340 points.
Eli Straman led Sidney, placing 44th in 17:33.4, and teammate Gavin Bockrath was right behind in 45th in 17:33.4 out of 128 runners.
Ian Bowman was 60th in 18:09.7, Ian Bonifas 85th in 19:00, and Patrick McClain 107th in 20:47.8.
In junior high boys action, Sidney’s Braden Guinther was eighth out of 338 runners in 11:39.1.
