OBETZ — Three local athletes competed at the state cross country championships Saturday at Fortress Obetz.
In Division I, Teays Valley sophomore Katy Zang ran in her first championship. In Division II, Westfall senior Caitlyn Shipley competed in her fourth state meet and Circleville junior Maddux Bigam in her third.
Division I
Teays Valley’s Zang was 76th overall in the Division I race. She ran the 5,000-meter course in 19:39.10.
Lakota West’s Evelyn Prodoehl led the field throughout the race to claim the championship in 17:23.77.
Division II
Shipley and Bigam both saw strong improvement over last year’s results.
Shipley was more than 30 seconds faster than last year as she finished 59th overall with a time of 19:54.05. In 2022, she was 64th in 20:26.5.
Bigam took 73rd Saturday in 20:07.94. At last year’s championships she placed 75th in 20:33.5.
Reese Reaman from Woodridge was the race winner in 17:52.21.
A couple other league athletes had good days as Fairfield Union’s Anna Conrad was seventh in 18:45.32 and Unioto’s Cameron Walker was eighth in 18:45.76.
Minerva won the team title with 144 points. Fairfield Union took 13th with a score of 302.
In the boys Division II state championships, Fairfield Union’s Andrew Walton claimed the individual state championship as the Falcons took third as a team with 136 points.
Walton (15:00.17) battled Marlington’s Colin Cernansky throughout the race with Cernansky (15:21.90) taking second, helping Marlington to the team title (108 points). Woodridge was second with 123.
