LYNCHBURG — Georgetown, Eastern Brown and Bethel travelled to Lynchburg-Clay High School for their final regular-season meets of the season before conference championships begin and the Tigers and Warriors left with a bit of hardware.
Bethel’s Jackson Coates beat Eastern’s Logan Lainhart by over a minute to win the individual championship. Lainhart’s teammate Garyn Purdy came in fifth for the Warriors, posting a time of 17:50.
Ripley’s Josh Deaton finished sixth in the boys race, clocking a 17:52.00 and edging Clermont Northeastern’s Seth Teaney by one second. Georgetown placed a pair of runners in the top 10, with junior Chris Dietrick finishing eighth and teammate Finn Tomlin crossing the line ninth.
Coates’ victory in the event lead his team to a four-point victory over Eastern Brown. Georgetown came in third place in the boys’ team standings, with White Oak rounding out the top five.
West Union placed runners in first and second in the girls’ 5K, but no other Lady Dragon finished in the top 15. Bethel again took the team title, edging past Manchester on a tiebreaker. Both teams had 57 points, but Bethel’s Lindsey Marquez finished five seconds ahead of Manchester’s Alexis Barlow, giving the Lady Tigers the tiebreaker.
Eastern’s Rebekah Ellis finished fourth, six seconds behind Whiteoak’s Ashleigh Harless. Roughly 20 seconds later, Fayetteville freshman Cecelia Murphy crossed the line, earning a top-10 finish for the Lady Rockets.
Ripley’s Tiffany Deaton finished right between Marquez and Barlow in 29th place. Deaton clocked a 25:36.00 in the meet, which saw 51 runners participate.
In the junior high boys event, Bethel’s Sam Frondorf paced the field as he and four teammmates finished in the top-10 of the event. Not to be outdone, the Eastern Warriors also placed four runners in the top ten and all seven Warriors runners finished in the top 15, giving Eastern the boys’ title.
Eastern seventh-grader Ina Wiles came in second, nine second behind Frondorf. Teammate Dustin Jimison came in third, 19 seconds behind Wiles.
The Eastern Lady Warriors placed four runners in the top six, giving them the girls 3K title by 27 points over Georgetown. Camryn Pickrill led the Lady Warriors, winning the race by 10 seconds over Peebles’ Allyson Behr. Georgetown’s Katie Colwell and Allyson McHenry also earned top-10 finishes.
Eastern Brown and Fayetteville will be in action Saturday, October 17 at the Southern Hills Athletic Conference meet, held in Ripley. Georgetown will travel north to Goshen for the Southern Buckeye Conference meet. Both events are scheduled to start at 10 a.m.
