Katie Frazier leads a pack of Columbus North girls runners across the finish line in Tuesday’s meet against Columbus East at Ceraland.
Ted Schultz | The Republic
For their first full 5K cross-country race of the season, Columbus North coaches Andy Keffaber and Rick Sluder wanted their boys and girls teams to have as big a pack as they could a solid pace on Tuesday at Ceraland.
As a result, the top-ranked Bull Dog girls had 11 runners cross the finish line within 3 1/2 seconds, and the sixth-ranked North boys put 18 runners within 4 seconds in the lead pack as both teams raced to 15-50 victories against Columbus East.
“We wanted to run a nice big pack at a good, solid pace,” North girls coach Rick Sluder said. “We wanted to get as many girls up front as we could and run a nice-solid pace and keep as many together as we could. It was fun watching both teams following that philosophy and racing well as a team.”
The top five girls runners and top 13 boys runners on Tuesday primarily have been JV runners in previous years or are freshmen. The Bull Dogs top returning girls runners finished ninth-through-11th, and the top three boys returners were 14th through 16th, allowing younger runners to take the top spots and gain confidence.
Sophomore Katie Frazier won the girls race in 20 minutes, 39.73 seconds, a personal-best by about three minutes.
“The beginning was pretty easy,” Frazier said. “The first lap felt good, and then the second lap, I started falling behind. But the support from everyone is really what helped keep me going and helped keep everyone going. At the end, they were like, ‘Let’s line up,’ and they were trying to get the younger kids to go forward and sprint for the finish so that we could get (personal records).”
Macy Eaton finished second in 20:40.26, followed by Sierra Newell (20:40.56), Ainsley Sherlock (20:40.81), Jessica Meza (20:41.02), Julie Klaus (20:41.23), Ellen White (20:41.44), Sydney Morlok (20:42.03), Julia Kiesler (20:42.57), Brianna Newell (20:42.83) and Lily Baker (20:43.12).
Chloe Krueger led the Olympians wityh a 15th-place finish in 21:07.79. Madison Swartzentruber took 20th in 22:48.47, while Carly Otte was 21st (23:03.42), Riley Carothers 22nd (23:13.01) and Victoria Cuhadar 23rd (23:22.85).
“We had several PRs and several season PRs, so we were happy with our effort today,” East girls coach Jesse Shoaf said. “These after-school races are a little hotter, so times are usually a little bit slower. But I was pleased with our effort today from the top seven. We’re just kind of progressing from there and will look to next week.”
Carson Zhang leads a pack of Columbus North boys runners across the finish line in Tuesday’s meet against Columbus East at Ceraland.
Ted Schultz | The Republic
In the boys race, North senior Carson Zhang broke away from the pack at the end to win in 18:39.21.
“I felt pretty fine,” Zhang said. “It was kind of unexpected that I got first. I don’t typically get any records. It was encouraging. But there are bigger (meets) than this, and maybe I’m not so good that time.”
Amit Gangadhara finished second in 18:39.55, followed by Logan Vanzant (18:39.81), Denton Sluder (18:40.08), Draven Martinez (18:40.30), Akot Tong (18:40.55), Jonny Klaus (18:40.81), Leyton Hottell (18:41.02), Sam Hobbeheydar (18:41.24), Neal White (18:41.46), Rylan Hottell (18:41.71), Kellen Hottell (18:41.93), Charlie Smith (18:42.14), Will Russell (18:42.36), Clayton Guthrie (18:42.58), Mateo Mendez (18:42.93), Adam Reckers (18:42.03( and Adler Larson (18:43.11).
East was led by a 24th-place finish from Jackson Brookes in 19:02.34. Jacob Peeples took 28th in 19:34.64, while Lorren Westerfeld was 30th (19:40.81), Derek Patchett (19:41.19) and Chris Gilroy 38th (20:26.23).
“Our top five this year are all kind of close together, and they’re competing with each other really well,” East boys coach Ryan Burke said. “I thought our guys ran well today. I wanted them to kind of push to be toward the front group. We’re always looking for just ways to improve and individual improvement, and I think we had that today.”
The cross-country meet, along with the North-East boys tennis match on Tuesday, kicked off the North-East rivalry week that will see the teams meet in girls soccer today, boys soccer Thursday and football on Friday.
“It’s always great competing against East during rivalry week,” Sluder said. “Obviously, we want to contribute during the week. East always gives us a good shot, so it’s always fun to come out and compete against them.”
