BEAVERCREEK BOYS CROSS COUNTRY TEAM A TIGHT GROUP
— The state BEAVERCREEK is taking notice of the Beavercreek High School cross country team this season. The Beavers boys, that is.
While the Division I defending state champion Beavercreek girls cross country team continues to dominate the D-I state poll, the boys have also made strides in earning state recognition.
Beavercreek’s boys moved up to fifth in the state rankings. That’s a steady climb from their debut at No. 18 in the preseason poll. The Beavers were not ranked in any of the 11 state polls last season.
“It’s been fun to watch,” Beavercreek coach Howard Russ said. “They’re kind of under the radar because the girls are doing so well. I’m really happy with their progress.”
The Beavers’ pack mentality has paced the team. Just 34 seconds separates the No. 1 runner from the No. 5 runner, which determines the team’s score. Junior Connor Ewert has consistently led the team and has the best time this season at 16:07.7. Senior Tayton Hess (16:25.7), sophomore Keegan Souhan (16:32.1), junior Ryan Massie (16:34.7) and junior Andrew Radford (16:44.3) consistently make up the top five.
Junior Andrew Woodard (17:09.6) and senior Jacob Gosney (17:15.3) round out the team’s top seven runners.
“You could see it coming. The boys had a great summer,” said Russ, who also credits Beavercreek track coach Jim Weckesser for the progress. “They don’t really care who the number one or the number seven is, it’s how fast we get our number five in. That’s the strength of the boys team.”
The girls team, ranked No. 6 in the country, is used to attention with 11 consecutive trips to the state championships in addition to national meets.
The boys program, while no strangers to the state meet with consecutive trips from 2013-16, are building up their big-meet experience as the postseason gets closer. The team travels to the McQuaid Invitational in Rochester, New York, this weekend and runs the Nike Twilight Invitational in Terre Haute, Indiana, on Oct. 5. The team also ran at the MSU Spartan Invite on Sept. 13, where it finished fourth overall but tops among Ohio teams.
“They’re only going to get stronger the more experience they get. We want them to run in some of these big meets so the postseason doesn’t seem that big to them,” Russ said.
“The really cool thing is the girls are excited the boys are doing well. I think they’re feeding off each other. The boys are having fun.”