NORTH ROBINSON — Heading into this season, Colonel Crawford senior Adam Scott said that he has never broken 18 minutes on his home course.
He broke that mark quickly Saturday morning.
Scott outlasted a very strong field and came away with a win in the Kip Kinn Invitational Cross Country meet.
Scott’s 16:31.41 winning time was two minutes better than he has ever run on that course, five seconds better than Levi Bryan of Columbus Grove and 12 seconds better than David Blunk of Northmor.
“I felt pretty good,” Scott said. “My PR last year was 18:30 on this course. And I just did a lot of training this summer because I’m never going to get this opportunity again.”
He emphasized that work in the summer was the difference.
“I increased my mileage to 50 to 60 miles per week,” Scott said. “And that just helped me a lot this season.”
Marion Harding’s Lydia Price came away with the win in the girls varsity race, finishing with a strong 19:03.73.
Columbus Grove won the team championship in the boys race, finishing with 34 points, well ahead of Colonel Crawford’s 79. Upper Sandusky was third with 110 points and Northmor was fourth with 117.
Pleasant was fifth with 148, Harding sixth with 219, Riverdale seventh with 250 and Clyde eighth with 258. Buckeye Central was ninth at 268 and Galion was 11th at 281.
Colonel Crawford had a strong effort along with Scott. Shawn Auck was eighth (17:06.02), Braeden Grau placed 13th (17:28.48), Issac Stirm was 22nd (18.05.15), Landon Strausbaugh placed 38th (18:55.98).
On the girls side, Price said that she got off to a slow start in her race.
“I got off to a bad start, I think I was 10th maybe,” Price said. “I’m not a good sprinter.”
She also thought that she didn’t take control of the race until the two-mile mark.
“This was the best I’ve ever felt,” Price said. “It’s nice and flat. When I got to the second mile, I really wanted to push that mile.”
Price’s winning time was four seconds better than Riverdale’s Allison Woodruff and 43 seconds better than Riverdale’s Marissa Bonham.
Crawford County’s top finisher was Galion’s Makayla Halbisen, who placed fifth at 20:15.19.
In the girls team race, Upper Sandusky came away with the win, scoring 107 points, while Northmor was second at 115 and Columbus Grove was third with 117.
Riverdale was fourth (129), Clyde fifth (188), Galion sixth (189) and Buckeye Central seventh (193). Colonel Crawford placed 12th at 257.
According to Kip Kinn, organizing a race of this size is challenging. There were 19 schools on the boys side and 18 on the girls side.
“This is probably one of the bigger races we’ve had in a while,” Kinn said. “It is very competitive. And that’s what you like when you have a lot of teams together. When you have good competition that speaks for itself.”
Kinn also felt that the meet went along very smoothly.
“We have good help here,” Kinn said. “Everything works out. We have several really good volunteers here.”