Eaton’s Tanner Davis finished second at the National Trail Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 21 to lead the Eagles to a team title.
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
NEW PARIS — Eaton’s cross country teams stayed close to home last weekend and claimed first in both the boys and girls races at the National Trail Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 19.
The Eagles boys team topped the six-team field with 24 points, while host National Trail was third with 76 and Preble Shawnee was fourth with 88.
On the girls side, Eaton was the only girls team to field a full squad and won with 15 points.
”We stayed local to compete on a flat faster course and allow our team members that are in band the opportunity to race and make it back to Eaton in time to march in the Pork Festival parade,” Eaton coach Randy McKinney said. “It was a faster course, but a really hot morning to race. In the end I think the heat evened out the opportunity to run faster times, although several of our athletes did run season best times.”
Tanner Davis led Eaton with a second place finish in 17 minutes, 44.3 seconds. Jack Richardson was third in 17:56.9. Skyler Derksen was fourth in 17:57.2, Wes Kitchin was sixth in 18:20.4, Reed Daniels was ninth in18:41.8, Michael Fomin was 11th in 18:49.0 and Dylan Staley was 12th in 18:50.2 to round out the Eagles top seven.
Dixie’s Collin Day won the race in 17:06.4.
For Trail, Tucker Denlinger was fifth in 18:06.6, Jackson Johnson was 13th in 18:54.4, Braydan Lee was 16th in 19:13.5 and Bryce Couvutsakis was 21st in 19:41.3.
For Preble Shawnee, Dennis Hall was 14th with a time of 19:01.2, Kyle Bruno was 17th in 19:18.1, Evan Shields was 20th in 19:28.2, Alex Meyers was 25th in 20:58.8, and John-Bryce Osborne was 22:51.1.
For Eaton’s girls, Josie Eilerman won the race in 22:03.6. Avery Bleil was second in 22:10.3, Emily Haynes was third in 22:10.9, Addison Guiley was fourth in 22:420.7, Brynlee Hamilton was fifth in 23:55.2, Emma Pierce finished seventh in 24:02.9 and Alli Davis was eighth in 24:07.7 to round out the top seven for the Eagles.
For National Trail, Sydney Whalen ws sixth in 23:59.6 and Kira Rutan was 14th in 25:17.9.
For Preble Shawnee, Maddison Moore was 11th in 24:24.7, Bella Adkins was 13th in 24:44.5 and Faith Jessie was 16th in 26:08.5.
“Once again we are improving individually and as a team race to race,” McKinney said. “The goal today was for both the high school boys and girls team to work on the team pack aspect of racing.”
Eaton is scheduled to travel to Kentucky this weekend.
”This week we compete, for the first time ever, in the Thomas Nelson Hillbilly Run Invitational in Bardstown, Kentucky on Saturday morning. This meet is one of the premier meets contested in the State of Kentucky,” McKinney said. “The field of competition should be high quality individually and in the team competition with many of the top ranked teams and individuals from across Kentucky. We have been aiming toward having all our top runners back and competing in this meet. I am eager to see how we respond individually against the strong field of competition.”
National Trail is scheduled to compete in the Centerville Night Race, while Preble Shawnee will compete at Newton on Saturday, Sept. 28.
Reach Eddie Mowen Jr. at 937-683-4061 and follow on X @emowenjr.
