PREP ROUNDOUP: Oak Hill Invitational

Boys Meet

In his first varsity race of the year since recovering from a leg injury, Western’s Matt Grider finished second overall in the nine-team invite with a time of 17:08.

Eastbrook’s Josh Neideck had the top finish (16:40) as the Grant County Panthers finished first overall with 36 points. Western finished in third place (55) behind the host Golden Eagles (51).

“If you look at our overall time, we actually beat Oak Hill by :15,” Western coach Gary Jewell said. “I thought we ran a very smart race and did a very good job moving through the pack. I’m very pleased with that.”

Austin Elliott finished fifth overall for Western with a time of 17:55. Braxton Bagwell (18:06) was eighth, and Jacob Bradshaw followed in 14th (18:30).

Abel Barrera (19:15), Auston Davenport (19:24), and Grant Harbaugh (19:27) finished neck-and-neck for Western.

“We’ve shown a lot of improvement since the [Western] Invitational a week and a half ago,” Jewell said. “Part of that is our work ethic. We’ve done a much better job in practice since I told the guys you race how you practice.”

Girls race

Western placed fourth with 121 points. Eastbrook was the winner (36), followed by Jay County (39) and Oak Hill (78).

The Panthers were led by Cara Love with an 11th-place finish (22:19). Emma Nixon placed 22nd (23:40). Nicole Hampshire took 29th (24:08). Gina Jakubowicz was 36th (24:41) with Olivia Nixon taking 37th (24:43), and Katie Singer placed 44th (25:27).

“Four of our girls [Love, E. Nixon, O. Nixon and Singer] had personal records,” Western coach Joni McCracken said. “Even though we had personal records, we are not where we want to be [at this time of the season]. We need to be closer to Oak Hill. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”