Boys Best of the Week: Mount Gilead's Will Baker beats top runners from Ohio

Mount Gilead's Will Baker took on some of the state's top cross country runners, and he beat them all at the recent Olentangy Berlin Bear Den Dash.

Baker ran a 14:57.95 and became just the fourth Division III Ohio boy in history to crack 15 minutes. Among all Ohio runners, he is the 30th to get into the 14s.

During the race, he beat 10 of the 20 top runners in the state, including Division III defending state champion Luke Snyder of Rittman, who ran a 15:05.

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Mount Gilead is the unanimous No. 1 team in Division III as voted on by the state coaches association. At Berlin, MG finished 11th as a team as its top five runners ran 17 minutes or faster.

The field was a who's who of big-school running, including No. 3 Westerville North, No. 6 Toledo St. Francis, No. 7 Dublin Jerome, No. 8 Olentangy Orange, No. 9 Olentangy Liberty, No. 13 Dublin Scioto, No. 14 Springboro, No. 17 Marysville, No. 20 Perrysburg and No. 25 Boardman.

More Cross Country

● Fredericktown won the 22nd Marion Harding Cross Country Invitational, scoring 86 points in the 22-team, 215-runner field. Colonel Crawford was runner-up with 132 points. Locally, Highland was ninth, Pleasant 11th, Northmor 12th, MG 13th, the hosts 15th and Cardington 22nd. Lexington's Latrell Hughes won the race in 15:40.

● Ridgedale's Brogan Weston was fourth in the Harding field with a 16:35, while Elliot Weston was 10th in 16:48. Pleasant's Will Lichtenberger was 17th in 17:06, Northmor's David Blunk 19th in 17:07, Pleasant's Elijah McGinniss 22nd in 17:15, Highland's Matthew Miller 27th in 17:27, Cardington's Dylan Compton 30th in 17:30, MG's Liam Stalnaker 32nd in 17:31, Harding's Andrew Tackett 33rd in 17:32, Pleasant's Joey Dietsch 36th in 17:39, Harding's Peyton Ward 37th in 17:42 and Highland's Cael Gilmore 50th in 17:55.

● Other locals cracking the top 100 at Harding were Northmor's Will Naylor (51st, 17:55), Highland's Ethan Harmon (52nd, 17:56), Highland's Henry Spence (58th, 18:03), MG's Brycen Gabriel (59th, 18:04), Harding's Sebastian Swihart (67th, 18:06), Highland's Jayden Marcum (74th, 18:18), Ridgedale's Michael Richmond (76th, 18:25), MG's Rowan Shaw (77th, 18:27), MG's Chace Staats (78th, 18:28), Northmor's Dane Creswell (81st, 18:31), MG's Grayson Smith (82nd, 18:32), River Valley's Kael Swartz (83rd, 18:34), Pleasant's Jacob Meyers (87th, 18:36), Northmor's Owen Yunker (88th, 18:41) and Northmor's Anthony Scheibe (97th, 18:47).

● North Union was seventh at the Mechanicsburg Invitational. Felix Plouck led the Wildcats with a 10th in 17:55 and was followed by Mack Marlette (36th, 19:59), Max Leavitt (47th, 20:16), Jack Hoover (68th, 21:06), Colton Smith (87th, 21:47), Drew Chadwell (89th, 21:51), and Phillip Ardrey (113th, 23:35).

Soccer

● Pleasant goalkeeper Jair Orrostieta came up with a shutout to help the Spartans to a 2-0 win over Marion Harding. Rodric Gomez and Gael Gomez both scored a goal and had an assist in the victory.

● In Harding's 4-2 loss to Willard, Jackson Shipley scored a goal. The other was an own-goal for the Presidents.

Coaches and statisticians are encouraged to send their results to the Marion Star's Rob McCurdy at rmccurdy@gannett.com, 419-610-0998, X @McMotorsport and INstagram @rob_mccurdy_star.

Vote: Marion Star Boys Best of the Week Performer Poll

● Here are the boys nominees for the Marion Star Best of the Week Performer Poll. Vote as often as allowed at MarionStar.com and its app. The polls are open through early Sunday morning.

● Pleasant soccer's Jair Orostieta saved eight shots in a shutout win over Marion Harding.

● River Valley soccer's Hudson Pollock scored four times in a win over Galion.

● Pleasant golfer Dawson Hall shot a 79 at the Division II district tournament at Turnberry.

● River Valley golfer Chase Smith shot an 81 at the Division II district tournament at Turnberry.

● Ridgedale cross country's Brogan Weston ran a 16:35 for fourth place at the Marion Harding Invitational.

● In last week's poll, Smith won it with 170 of 365 votes (47 percent) after shooting a 75 to win the Oakhaven sectional. Other nominees were Ridgedale runner Elliot Weston, Mount Gilead runner Will Baker, Pleasant golfer Dylan Moore, Pleasant runner Will Lichtenberger and North Union runner Felix Plouck.

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Boys Best of the Week: Mount Gilead's Will Baker beats top runners from Ohio