Coach Herb Fitzer spent a good part of the evening before the Tri-Valley Cross Country Tri-Meet between Tri-Valley, Crooksville, and Philo on Tuesday, September 11th watching the Muskingum river water levels to make sure that their course for the meet would not end up under water. Luckily the river held back and allowed them to continue as planned, well almost anyway.
Surely with all of the rain we have been getting in the area, it was cause for concern for the Tri-Valley Cross Country team since their race was being held at the Dresden River Park, a low-lying park with a boat ramp for anglers and boat enthusiasts alike. Although the river did not rise enough to engulf the park, the over-saturated wooded areas around the park made for a very muddy run for all of the competitors. Most of the athletes came back across the finish line looking like they had been wading in the river, with mud splattered from their feet to their mid-sections.
Despite the slippery conditions, all of the runners seemed to have a good time aside from the occasional wrong turn or two. The race started off with the Middle School coed teams with Owen Petit from Tri-Valley bringing in first place with a time of 12:29, followed by Blaze Hunter from Crooksville with a time of 12:41, and rounding out the top three was Arpen Parekh from Tri-Valley with a time of 12:56.
Next to race was the High School Boys teams, who had the longest stretch of the course. The top three runners for the day were Lee Osbourne of Crooksville with a time of 19:46, Landyn Phipps of Tri-Valley with a time of 20:01, and Aaron Smith of Tri-Valley coming in at a third-place time of 21:25.
By the time the girls High School teams got on the course it was all mud, but they finished strong with Savannah Moorehead of Crooksville in the lead at a time of 22:43, in second place, was Aubrey Harris of Tri-Valley with a time of 25:39, and tying for second place was Starley Jacobs of Tri-Valley in with a time of 25:39.
The final race of the day was run by the elementary school teams with Taylor Crozier of Tri-Valley taking the top spot, with a time of 7:29, Dalton Crozier of Tri-Valley got a time of 8:11 to make second place and Ben Kennedy of the Scotties team at a time of 8:59.
Even with the extra obstacles of a muddy trail, the three teams held out for a good day of cross-country racing.
Good Job Scotties
