The math is easy. If Mount Vernon-Lisbon boys’ and girls’ cross country teams can get enough out of their third, fourth and fifth runners, the sky is the limit. Those runners took a big step Tuesday, Oct. 8, at the West Delaware Invitational in Manchester. MVL swept both team titles at the final tune-up before conference, state-qualifiers and state.
“It was nice to perform well and hopefully set ourselves up for our assignment in the State Qualifying Meet,” MVL Coach Kory Swart said. The qualifying meet will be Wednesday, Oct. 23, and the site was not yet released at time of publication.
The Class 3A fourth-ranked boys finished with 52 points, easily outpacing second-place No. 2 (2A) Oelwein (131) and third-place No. 8 (3A) Washington (136).
Grady Olberding won medalist honors in 15 minutes, 35.2 seconds. He was followed as usual, by Dawson Scheil, who placed sixth. Then Seamus O’Connor (10th), Anthony Armstrong (15th) and Chasen Caskey (20th) rounded out the scoring.
“They moved up a bit from the previous race,” Swart said. “That is immensely helpful. The closer we can keep our 3-4-5 runners to Grady and Dawson, the better we are going to finish at meets. It is not a secret.”
It was Olberding’s third gold finish in his last four races.
“He’s looked so good, too,” Swart said. “He was in control the whole race. That bodes well, moving forward.”
The Class 3A second-ranked MVL girls won with 65 points, finishing well clear of runner-up No. 10 (3A) Marion (98). Evelyn Moeller and Kiersten Swart finished third and fourth, in 19:02.2 and 19:13.1, respectively. They were followed by Edith Dawson (19th), Cora Smith (23rd), and Miranda Sellner (24th).
“Edith, Cora, Miranda had great races, and are moving up closer to Evelyn and Kiersten,” Swart said. “They’ve done such a good job with practices and they’ve pushed themselves.”
Mustangs also won both JV races, including a perfect score of 15 on the boys side. Danny Dye and Josie Bothell won JV medalist honors.
Next up is the Wamac Championships on Thursday, Oct. 17, at Antioch Christian Church outside of Marion on Hwy. 13. The varsity girls race is at 4 p.m. with varsity boys to follow.