Jay County (47) edged Western (53) for top honors in the Oak Hill Invitational. Tipton (154) was sixth, Eastern (197) came in eighth, Peru (203) placed 10th and Tri-Central had an incomplete team.
Katie Hollingsworth (20:46) led Western with a second-place finish. Jenn Elliott (21:03) came in fourth, Lacey Myer (22:54) was 14th and Corianne Myer (23:06), Kayla Gaskins (23:07) and Bre Nicholas (23:17) finished 16th through 18th.
"It was a really close race," Western coach Heather Yentes said. "The girls did a really good job racing. Jenn, Lacey and Kayla all had personal-bests. Katie ran a solid race with the competition, and Bre keeps improving and doing a great job."
Emily Rethlake (24:30) led Eastern with a 25th-place finish. Danielle Stiner (24:55) followed with a 31st place finish, Emily Wilcox (25:34) was 35th, Lindsey Reprogle (28:07) came in 59th and Alyssa Summers (30:18) was 66th.
Rachel Hewitt was the top TC runner, with a time of 25:10.
Western finished in second place at the 15-team Invitational. Oak Hill won the event with a score of 50, followed by Western (62) and Blackford (87). Tipton was fifth (140), followed by Peru (144) ,and Tri-Central (208). Eastern was incomplete.
Zac Martinez led Western in a time of 17:36, with teammate Chris Love taking ninth (18:11). Kody Harmon in 10th (18:12), Corey Scott in 18th (18:51) and Austin Young in 21st (19.00).
"I thought they ran extremely well," Western coach Joe Orr said. "Zac Martinez ran well. Chris Love moved up as the No. 2 runner and Kody Harmon was our No. 3 and they both had good races. Beating Blackford was a good accomplishment for the team and we're getting closer to Oak Hill."
Aaron Garretson covered the course in 17:30 to take third place, leading Peru. Also for the Bengal Tigers, Shannon Garretson was 15th (18:38), Jordan Garretson was 36th (20:01), Nathan Gillespie was 43rd (20:19) and Sonnet' Ornelas was 84th (22:19).
"The Garretson boys ran well and hopefully they continue to run well," Peru coach Gary Downing said. "I'm hoping they get competitive among themselves. There's a little sickness in our 5-6 [runners] so that's hurting us a little right now but we'll be fine."
Brady Butler led Tipton with a 13th-place finish (18:29), followed by Aron Crawford in 17th (18:49), Micah Woolf in 33rd (19:46), Mitchell Lively in 48th (20:32) and Tyler Hoover in 50th (20:37).
Justin Huddleston led TC in 30th in a time of 19:24, followed by John Vandorn in 41st (20:11), Jacob Baird in 58th (20:52), Kyle Garhart in 69th (21:24) and Derek Glass in 81st (22:05).
"We had a freshmen [Jacob Baird] move up, taking a minute off of his time," Tri-Central coach Lisa Jones said.
Eastern's Hansen Martin was 25th (19:13).