The Wayland High School girls’ varsity cross-country team has had some stellar performances this season, but Tuesday afternoon’s O-K Gold Conference championship meet wasn’t one of them.
The Lady Wildcats, who won the runner-up trophy just a week ago at the Wayland Invitational, settled for seventh place in the league meet at Middleville Thornapple Kellogg High School. Forest Hills Eastern won it, edging Ottawa Hills by a single point, 60 to 61.
Meanwhile, the Wildcat boys placed sixth, with Forst Hills took that race as well, five five points over Cedar Springs, 54 to 59.
Ottawa Hills, not known in the past for cross country, took the top three individual places. Sophomore Olivia Barabas captured ninth place in 20:16.71 and freshman teammate Ava Makowski was 11th in 20:30.65.
Hannah Smith finished 32nd, Emma Thayer 41st and freshman Elliot Antel 43rd.
None of the top five Lady Wildcat runners is a senior.
The boys’ squad also has an accent on youth. Freshman Isaac Dyer took 11th ploace with a career-best five-kilometer time of 17:34.03. Sophomore Travis Koon was 23rd in 18:01.1, sophomore Devin Weaver was 29th in 18:31.81, freshman Casey Jansen was 41st in 19:14.9 and freshman Cainon Fenn was 49th.
None of the top five runners for the Wayland boys is a senior.
