Truckers compete at Dublin Jerome Invite

DUBLIN — The Norwalk High School cross country team competed in its first-ever nighttime event on Sept. 13 at Dublin Jerome High School. The Norwalk girls team competed in the Green division and took third ou of 16 teams with 102 points. Saige Konik won the race in 19:19, which was a full minute ahead of the second-place finisher. Olive Leavitt placed fourth in 20:43.14 and Grace Norris was 10th in 21:15.88 to give the Truckers four competitors among the top 10. The NHS boys competed in two different divisions. In the Green, Adam Slate was 95th in 19:46.25 and Victor Negrete (20:00.8) was 104th. In the Gold division, Nolan Jones (17:57.49) was 122nd, followed by Clay Heyman (18:07.49) in 130th and Alex Christophel (18:27.74) in 142nd. The host Trucker Invitational is set for 9 a.m. Saturday at NHS. JUNIOR HIGH NMS girls second GALION — The Norwalk Middle School competed in the Galion Cross Country Festival on Sept. 13, with both the boys and girls teams finishing in second place. The boys were again led by Drew Hamernik with a time of 13:11.6, good for 17th overall, and the girls were again led by Adelinn Sitterly with a time of 13:40.8, which placed her eighth overall. Four other NMS boys finished in the top 30, including Zane Daniels (13:35) in 23rd; Caleb Cross (13:38.6) in 26th; Parker Nickoli (13:41.3) in 29th; and Ethan Jones (13:42.7) in 30th. The team was rounded out by Madden Sigg (14:28.6) in 44th; Alexander Thompson (16:41.7) in 79th; and Leland Davidson (17:11.1) in 86th. The Truckers competed against 10 full teams and 97 runners. After Sitterly in the girls race, Norwalk's Layla Koch (13:50) was ninth and Harper Gilbert (14:15.3) was 18th. Ivy Leavitt (15:14.2) was 35th, followed by Malayna Sullivan (15:43.8) in 46th; Aubrielle Cruey (15:55.9) in 53rd; Liliana Mora (17:43.9) in 76th; and Krista Bergman (18:20) in 88th. "The boys ran a great pack race," NMS coach Dave Daniels said. "We keep telling them to work hard and try to beat the teammate ahead of them, and today's race showed that. "The girls worked hard in practice and the team results showed," he added. "They were only two points behind the first-place team. Even with the hot and humid conditions, we had two runners finish with season personal records. The kids ran very well considering the weather conditions." Up next for the NMS teams is the host Trucker Invitational at 10;20 a.m. and 10:50 a.m. Saturday at Norwalk High School.