Northview captures boys, girls district titles

Greg Turissini of St. John's heads to the finish line. His first-place finish led the Titans to their sixth straight district title.

Jetta Fraser

Northview's Meredith Wagner won in District 2 by almost a minute over Alexandra Aughenbaugh.

Round 1 in the battle between two of this area's top girls cross country teams went to Northview Saturday.

The Wildcats, ranked fifth in the state in the most-recent Division I girls poll, won the District 2 race at Pearson Park with 23 points. Second place went to Notre Dame, ranked eighth in D-I, as the Eagles finished with 34 points.

The top four teams in each race yesterday, along with any runners who finished among the top 16, advance to the regional.

Northview and Notre Dame, along with Central Catholic and Whitmer, will run at Pickerington, while the top runners in the other three races advance to Tiffin's Hedges-Boyer Park.

Northview was led by senior Meredith Wagner, who won the individual title with a 18:05.1 clocking. The Wildcats had three runners in the top four - freshman Abby Masters (19:18.7) placed third and sophomore Moe Dean (19:21.4) took fourth - while all five scoring runners finished in the top eight.

Notre Dame, which was led by Alexandra Aughenbaugh (18:59.3) in second, had its top three runners place in the top six and had six in the top 12. Senior Elizabeth Lemon (19:29.5) took fifth, while junior Lauren Duncan (19:31.8) placed sixth for the Eagles.

Northern Lakes League schools swept the top three spots in the District 1 race as Perrysburg took first with 53 points, Southview was second with 74, and Anthony Wayne placed third with 78. Findlay also advanced to the regional with 106.

Greg Turissini of St. John's heads to the finish line. His first-place finish led the Titans to their sixth straight district title.

Southview freshman Lexi Lopez won the race with a time of 19:09.7, with junior Andrea Alt of Perrysburg second, roughly 13 seconds behind.

In the boys races at Pearson Park, Northview cruised to its third consecutive district crown, while St. John's Jesuit won its sixth straight title.

The Wildcats, ranked second in Ohio in Division I, had three runners in the top four and all five of its scorers among the top 10 in the District 1 race. They finished with 24 points, 23 better than Central Catholic in second.

Also advancing to the regional were Southview with 85 points and Clay with 113.

Senior Jacob Barnes won the individual title with a time of

16:06.1, 10 seconds better than junior teammate Mike Wallace.

The Titans, ranked fifth in D-I, took the top two spots to help hold off City League rival St. Francis 45-52. Bowling Green finished with 128 points to claim fourth.

Junior Greg Turissini of St. John's won the individual title with a time of 16:08.8, while senior Preston Benjamin was second with a 16:24.2 clocking.

The Knights were led by junior Scott LaVoy, who finished fifth with a time of 16:43.2.