NEW WASHINGTON — The rain may have affected the times at the Buckeye Central Cross Country Invitational Saturday morning, as very few runners reached their personal bests.

Still, the cream rose to the top in both races.

Colonel Crawford won the boys race with 22 points, but there were just three full teams in the race. Northmor was second with 58 and Hopewell-Loudon was third with 89.

On the girls side, Northmor won with 43 points and Buckeye Central was second with 84 and Carey third with 94. Colonel Crawford was seventh with 145 points.

Again, personal bests were fleeting in both races because of the Friday night’s rain, which softened the course.

For the boys, Ridgedale’s Brogan Weston won with a 16;58.48 and Colonel Crawford’s Adam Scott placed second with a 17:14.49. Both times, however, were well-below their top times. Scott, for example, ran a 16:30 to win the Kip Kinn Invitational a few weeks ago.

“I’m not happy with the way I ran,” Scott said. “This last month has been rough for me. My legs have been really burning every day when I run and I try my best to recover, but my body just won’t accept that. It hasn’t been going the best for me.

“I’ve been hydrating and all that, but I just can’t get my time where I used to get,” Scott added. “I like this course; it’s close and it’s pretty nice but I didn’t perform the best today.”

Weston also was disappointed with his time, but the Ridgedale star still controlled the race most of the way.

“It’s wet out there, it’s a little soft, and this is a tight course,” Weston said. “And there weren’t any crazy lead runners here. It was a little slower, but it was still a good race.”

Weston said that the slow pace may have helped him.

“I knew most of the way that I was little more consistent than most of these runners and so I said that I’m going to sit behind for about the first two miles and then I knew I would have enough to kick one out to get the win,” Weston said.

Crawford packed very well. Shaun Auck was fourth (17:25.36), Braeden Grau placed eighth (18:09.98), Isaac Stirm finished 10th (18:18.31) and Landon Strausbaugh finished 12th 18:32.50.

Buckeye Central’s Braden Siefert was 19th at 19:01.66.

For the girls, Mansfield Christian’s duo of Meagan Them and Riley Patrick went 1-2, with times of 19:22.58 and 19:34.04, respectively.

Thew was quick to credit her teammate in getting the win.

“My teammate, Riley, she pushed me a lot during the race,” Thew said. “And, having her beside me, there wasn’t many people around us. So, we just pushed each other the whole race.”

Thew also said that the soft ground made for slower times.

“I’m not super pleased with my time but it was fun,” Thew said. “The weather was good. Last week, we had really hot weather that definitely affected me and my teammates, but coming here it was shaded and more cool and it helped us not lose our cool. Last week, we were just fighting against the weather.”

Buckeye Central’s Angela Figueroa placed ninth at 22:11.94 and teammate Naveah Metzger was 11th at 22:31.12. Wynford’s Bri Westrick placed tenth with a 22:26.86.

Colonel Crawford’s Sydney Link finished 14th (22.40.79), and Wynford’s Allie Basinger was 16th at 23:05.67.