Five area runners qualify for state

TIFFIN — Five area runners placed among the top 28 positions in their respective races on Saturday at the regional cross country championships in Tiffin, and are headed to next weekend's state championships. Four boys runners from the Firelands Conference qualified for state in the Division III race at Hedges-Boyer Park. New London's duo of Tyler Twining and Cole Kropka, along with Plymouth's Levi Anderson and St. Paul's Ian Deeter will compete next Saturday (Nov. 7) at the state championships, which will be held the Fortress Obetz Sports Complex, located about 10 miles south of downtown Columbus. Twining and Robinson — who were 1-2 at the FC championships on Oct. 10 with Robinson winning — were virtually a tie on Saturday in Tiffin. Twining was 12th in 16:47.3, and Robinson was 13th in 16:47.6. At last year's state championships, Twining was 44th and Robinson was 115th. Meanwhile, Kropka placed 21st in 17:01.3 and Deeter was 27th in 17:06.1 on Saturday in a race that sends the top 28 runners to state. In the team standings, St. Paul and New London each scored 258 points, but the Flyers held the tie-breaker and finished eighth, and the Wildcats were ninth. The top seven teams qualified for state, as the Flyers — ranked No. 20 in the state coaches poll — and the 30th-ranked Wildcats were 18 points shy. For St. Paul, Isaac Thimke placed 43rd in 17:26.5 and Gavin Ross was 65th in 17:50.3. Rounding out the lineup for the Flyers on Saturday included Nick Centa (104th, 18:27.7), Sebastian Gomez (105th, 18:28.3), David Forrest (128th, 18:45.8) and Ryan Gross (161st, 19:18.7). For New London, Braeden Geist was 76th (18:01.8) and Wyatt Harrison (18:24.8) was 102nd. Rounding out the lineup for the 'Cats was Jalen Randleman (125th, 18:44.7), Dakota Pearce (134th, 18:53.8) and Owen Livingston (169th, 19:33.4). In Div. II girls, Edison's Abby Lesniak is again headed back to the state championships for a fourth time after placing third overall in 18:50.7. Lesniak was 29th at the state meet last season, 23rd in 2018 and 27th in 2017 as she seeks a fourth placement in the top 30 next week. The Chargers placed sixth in the team standings with 153 points, missing the fourth and final state slot by 12 points. Paige Schaefer (21:26.5) was 39th, Peyton Facemire (21:32.9) was 40th and Lindsay Sneider (21:52.5) was 47th for the Chargers. Rounding out the Edison lineup was Kennedy Baker (67th, 22:45.9), Ava Miller (76th, 23:01.5) and Mary Anderson (83rd, 23:24.4). Norwalk's Kylie Moser ran a time of 22:54 to place 73rd. In the Div. II boys race, Edison's Aidan Anderson was 43rd in 17:34.2. Three area runners also competed in the Div. III girls regional race. New London's Alyssa Henry (20:54) was 46th, followed by Western Reserve's Aliyah Perez (21:05.3) and Ashlyn Barnhart (21:23.1) in 60th and 68th, respectively. In the Div. I boys race, Norwalk's Wyatt Hale placed 50th in 18:40.8 as the lone runner for the Truckers.