Lakota West Cross Country Team Starts Season at OHSAA Preseason Invitational

Hebron, OH (August 18, 2018)

Officially, the Ohio High School Athletic Association begins its cross country season on Monday, August 20th, but since 2012, the OHSAA has hosted a preseason invitational at the National Trails Raceway Course, site of the OHSAA Cross Country State Championships in November.  The Lakota West Firebirds  brought a condensed group of 14 runners to the preseason meet for the first time in the school’s history.  Competing against many of the best schools in the state, the boys team finished 15th of 31 teams in the Division I race while the girls team finished 5th of 16 in the Division I & II Open race.

The boys team faced some tough competition including seven schools who qualified for the 2017 OHSAA State Championships.  Sophomore Zach Beneteau led the way with a personal best time of 17:13.6 (32nd place) despite a course saturated with rain from the day before.  Senior Alex Kelker was not far behind running 17:23.5 for 40th place, while teammates Sophomore Coleman Cronk (17:44, 56th), Junior Tyler Kovac (18:12, 95th) and Sophomore Zach Plotkin (19:10, 174th) rounded out the scoring for Lakota West.  Plotkin was competing in his first high school cross country race of his career after not competing his freshman year.  Sophomore Carter Rust (19:12.9, 178th) and Junior Prabh Singh (19:26, 198th) finished not far behind Plotkin for the 6th and 7th spots of the team.

The girls team entered the “open” race after losing a handful of seniors to graduation but battled against a difficult field including Mason, Hilliard Davidson, Medina and Kings.  Senior Hannah Riesenberg led the team with a 4th place finish (21:47) and was supported with some young Firebird runners.  Junior Americus Land finished 25th (23:41) followed by Freshman Gwyn Barnholtz  (41st, 24:11),  Freshman Katelyn Benoit (44th, 24:14) and Senior Olivia Risner (45th, 24:14).  Junior Anna Huston  (51st, 24:32.5) and Freshman Kassie Martin (65th, 25:05) wrapped up the Firebird runners.

Link to Full Results

The full Firebird Cross Country squad will compete this Saturday (8/25) in the Finish Timing Classic at Wilmington College with girls racing at 8am and the boys racing at 8:40am.  Admission is $1.