GALION — Crestview’s Morgan Welch and Tommy O’Neill scorched the field during Saturday’s district cross country meet at Amann Reservoir Park.
Welch won the Division III girls race by 27 seconds while O’Neill finished 21 seconds ahead of his nearest pursuer in the Division III boys race. Both led wire-to-wire in establishing new personal records.
Welch finished in 19 minutes, 15.4 seconds. Seneca East’s Lilly Schiefer was second in 19:42.2.
“People talk about that a lot. They say, ‘Imagine if you had competition,’ ” Welch said. “I think I do pretty well running by myself.”
The same could be said of O’Neill. His winning time of 16:20 was a PR by three seconds and 21.3 seconds faster than runner-up Ian Deeter of Norwalk St. Paul (16:41.3).
“All the guys I had as competition I raced at (the Firelands Conference meet) last week,” O’Neill said. “My strategy was kind of the same. I got out fast and try to just hold it until the end and give whatever I had left at the end of the race.”
The Crestview girls finished second in the team standings with a score of 54. Colonel Crawford won the district title with a team score of 44. Wynford (78) was third.
The top four teams and 16 individuals qualified for next week’s regional meet.
For Crestview, Leyna Gerich finished seventh overall in 21:00.8. Georgia McFarland was 10th overall in 21:15.8, while Kylie Brockway (21:20.5) was 12th and Tessa Kuhn (22:52.8) was 31st.
Colonel Crawford was led by Gabby Roston, who took third in 20:07. Allison Lust paced Wynford with a 14th-place finish (21:29.7).
Lucas freshman Chloe Sturts finished eighth overall in 21:08.3 She was followed across the line by Mansfield Christian’s Meagan Them (21:11.3).
On the boys side, Crestview earned its spot at the regional with a fourth-place team finish. The Cougars had a team score of 114.
Cooper Brockway backed O’Neill with a 20th-place finish of 18:13.1. Boston Roland (18:126) was 26th while Logan Friges (18:44.4) was 31st and Nick Poland (19:18.3) was 40th.
Mansfield Christian’s Andre Harrison earned an individual bid to next week’s regional meet with a seventh-place finish of 17:24.9. Colonel Crawford’s Luke Lawson (17:41) was 13th and Bicleruer Central’s Caden Young (17:51.7) was 16th.
