With Schul, the 5,000-meter gold medalist at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games signing autographs nearby, the Tigers went head-to-head with the gold standard in Division III in defending state champion Minster.
As for the powers in the Southwest District, three of the four teams ranked ahead of West Liberty-Salem in the first D-III state poll also competed. West Liberty-Salem, ranked No. 17 in the state poll, ran down No. 9 Covington, No. 14 Russia and No. 15 Versailles to finish second in the small-school division. Only No. 1 Minster did better Saturday.
Tigers’ sophomore Grace Adams battled a pack of Minster Wildcats throughout the race and finished third in 19:59.4 behind Minster’s Emma Watcke (19:09.4) and Kaitlynn Albers (19:52.1).
It was an impressive showing considering Minster runners claimed five of the top seven positions in the Division II-III small school division.
“I really like this race and seeing the competitive teams,” Adams said. “I wish some of these good teams like Russia and Minster were at some of our other meets to help push us through the season.”
West Liberty-Salem finished fourth at the regional meet and 20th at state last season. The Tigers made it known Saturday they are looking to improve on those numbers.
Making up the Tigers’ top five runners were senior Reghan Bieleski (9th, 20:24), freshman Katelyn Stapleton (20th, 21:18.9), freshman Maddie Bahan (26th, 21:30.5) and sophomore Lydia Moell (37th, 22:17.6).
Minster won the Schul team title with 21 points. West Liberty-Salem was runner-up with 86 as Versailles (129), Russia (145) and Covington (187) rounded out the top five.
“We’ve been working super hard and we’re excited to see how good we can be,” Adams said.
In the Division I-II girls big school division, Shawnee had a strong showing with third place behind Lebanon and Bellbrook.
Senior Grace Holmes (19:41.1) and sophomore Olivia Warax (19:42.6) finished fourth and fifth, respectively, overall. Senior Miah DeSantis (20:15.5) also cracked the top 10. Sophomore Caylee Hirtzinger (35th, 21:34.8) and senior Kelsey Lloyd (59th, 22:17.7) rounded out the top five.
“We’re really happy with our first race,” Shawnee coach Brian DeSantis said. “Our goal was to come in here today and compete with the best teams. I feel like we did that. We had to shake the rust off a little bit. Here we want to have fun and set the tone a little bit. We try not to put too much pressure on the kids and they responded.”
Shawnee’s boys finished sixth in the Division I-II boys big school division with 160 points. Dayton Carroll won with 33 points.
Junior Keith Kaiser (16:48.7) led the Braves with his 12th-place finish. Junior Will Geist (16th, 17:02.1), senior Bailey Hoelscher (31st, 17:46), freshman Zac Spitzer (45th, 18:03) and junior Ethan Griffith (61st, 18:22.4) also finished in the top five for Shawnee.
Among other area runners, Cedarville freshman Trent Koning (17:20.7) finished 13th overall and senior teammate Jonah Sheridan (17:31.1) finished 19th. West Liberty-Salem sophomore Noah Smith (17:43) was 23rd.
Cedarville finished seventh in the team standings.
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