GALION — Caleb Brown and his Shelby teammates sent a message to Ohio’s cross country community Saturday afternoon.
Don’t sleep on the Whippets.
Brown finished second in 15 minutes, 37.15 seconds and Shelby upset Division II poll co-champ Lexington to win the district title at Amann’s Reservoir Park.
Shelby finished with a team score of 46. Lex was second with 53.
“Huge props to Shelby. That was a great race by them,” said Lexington’s Ryan Johnston, who won the district title in 15:30.05. “We knew that it was going to be close. We knew they were going to give us a good run.”
As impressive as Saturday’s showing was, neither Brown nor Shelby coach Chris Zuercher put too much stock into it.
“Today means nothing. We’re looking long term,” said Zuercher, whose team finished 10th in the final Ohio Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches state poll. “We’ve got two more weeks and we’re looking to take care of business and get down to state.
“I don’t care what spot we got today. Today is just a qualifying day for everyone.”
Brown was followed across the line by Sam Logan, who finished ninth in 16:38.08. Tyler Green (16:45.73) was 10th, while Blake Lucius (16:46.98) was 11th. Shelby’s fifth and final scorer, Alex Moore, was 14th in 16:51.38.
“This is just districts, so we can’t get too excited,” said Brown, who established a new personal record. “It’s a good feeling, but Lexington is really powerful. We’ll have to push a lot harder to get them at regional and state.”
Johnston’s younger brother, Kyle, finished third in 15:37.83. Forest Volz was fifth in 16:10.71. Noah Sgambellone (17:10.32) was 16th and Clay Sturts (17:39.73) was 28th.
“We’re not even close to being where we want to be for regionals and state,” Ryan Johnston said. “We’ve got some inconsistencies on the team. We’ve got some work to do.”
Galion’s Braxton Tate also earned an individual berth to next week’s regional meet in Tiffin. Tate finished sixth in 16:22.62.
Division III: Crestview earned one of the four team qualifying spots to next week’s regional, finishing third with 86 points. Leo Ringler led the charge, finishing seventh in 17:18.63. James Barber (17:27.54) was 10th. Ian Trent (18:06.13), Jimmy Dunn (18:07.29) and Derek Wuthrich (18:08.11) were 23rd, 24th and 25th, respectively.
Individually, Lucas’ Gavin Shindeldecker (17:10.05) was sixth, while St. Peter’s Luke Henrich (17:19.68) was eighth and Mansfield Christian’s Clay Reynolds (17:37.91) was 13th. Plymouth had a pair of regional qualifiers in Levi Robinson (17:28.92, 11th) and Justin Robinson (17:54.57, 18th).
In the second Division III district, defending state champ Chad Johnson of Colonel Crawford was a wire-to-wire winner in 15:37.33. The Eagles won the team title with 61 points. Other scorers for Crawford were Wade Hopkins (17:10.49, sixth), Braxton James (17:59.82, 14th), Alex Mutchler (18:08.45, 17th) and Mason McKibben (18:27.90, 25th).
“I just got off an injury, so I’m just taking these next few weeks and running easy until state,” Johnson said. “State is where I’m really going to put the hammer down and go after some times.”
