WELLSTON — The Athens Cross Country Boys team finished 3rd out of 15 teams at the Wellston “Golden Rocket” Invite on Saturday. They were just one point behind second place finishers and TVC Ohio rival, Vinton County.
Leading the way for the Bulldogs was Junior Prem Koshal, who ran a season best time of 18:28.95, which led to an 8th place finish overall. This was a meet/course PR (personal record) by 59 seconds. “I think I ran pretty well for an early season meet, especially in comparison to my time at this meet last year. But, I think there are definitely points for improvement,” Koshal said.
The second finisher for Athens was Sophomore Coltrane Parsons, finishing 10th overall with a PR and course PR time of 18:38.41. “I feel that I competed well, especially with beating my previous best time,” Parsons said about his race.
The Bulldogs also featured Freshman Davis Talbert, who ran a PR time of 18:51.56 with a 14th place finish; freshman Gabe Rempel 19:19.23 (24th place); Zachary Wakeley had a course PR of 19:19.84 (25th place); Marcus Hutchinson had a PR time of 25:44.77 (129th place); Jacob Thomas had a PR time of 28:26.37 (149th place). When talking about the overall team’s performance at the meet, Koshal said, “I am super proud of the team. I think we all had some great times and I’m really excited for our season to come!”
The team was able to put together their best performance at this meet in three years. Their 1-5 split (which is the difference in time between when the team’s first finisher crosses the finish line and then their fifth runner crosses the finish line) was 50 seconds, which was a 10 second improvement from last year. The team’s average time Saturday was 18:55.60, which was a 35 second improvement from their average time from last year.
The team had three athletes under 19 minutes, compared to only one athlete under 19 minutes last year. “The team finishing third and was extremely close to second…only one point off- which is very promising looking towards TVC.
So far, the boys’ team has been practicing and competing well, and the improvement of times between the first and second meet show a very possible chance of much faster times by the end of the season,” said Athens sophomore Coltrane Parsons. Adding to the outlook for the Boys team this season, “I think that our boys’ team is in a great position for the rest of the season. In just one meet, we took so much time off as a team and I think that’s promising for what’s to come!” Koshal said.
Samuel Boyd of Vinton County won the Boys 5k Race with a time 16:50.88, helping his team to a 2nd place overall finish. Walker Fowble of Oak Hill was second overall with a time of 17:38.97; and Johan Naess of Bloom-Carroll was third with a time of 17:47.37, helping his team to a 1st Place finish overall.
Next, the Athens High School Cross Country team will travel to Hilliard Davidson for the “Hot Summer Bash.”
“I’m really excited for the whole team to take off more time. The course is really nice, and it’ll be a good day for some PRs. Cross country is a race against yourself but also for your team, so I hope that we can all push each other further!” Koshal added.
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