The Richmond Red Devils came to race on Saturday at the Marion Invitational at Indiana Wesleyan University. The boys kicked off the meet at 8:30 AM, and both the weather and training combined led to personal-best finishes from almost every Red Devil runner. Alex Orihuela was the first to score for the Red Devils, placing 32nd with a personal-best time of 17:50.20* and earning the only medal for the Richmond boys on the day. He was followed in seconds by Ivan Orihuela in 37th with a time of 17:54.70*, with Ethan Miller hot on his heels in 49th with a time of 18:18.00*. Ethan Newton and Xavier Ogle pushed each other to new best finishes, with Newton in 70th at 19:04.91* and Ogle in 71st at 19:08.20*. Jack Ferrell and Greyson Farmer rounded out the top seven for the day in 87th and 89th, with times of 19:33.00* and 19:38.90.
Four more Red Devil runners ran the varsity race, all for personal-best times. Alex Antrim placed 97th with a time of 19:49.50*, AJ Carter placed 108th with a time of 20:23.10*, Noah McClain placed 109th with a time of 20:24.00*, and Ethan Cordova placed 110th with a time of 20:24.80*.
The boys finished in 8th place out of a tough field of 16 schools overall.
The cannon for the girls’ race went off at 9:00 AM, and three Richmond medalists soon finished the race. Savanna Blair raced her way into the top ten of the race, breaking last week’s personal record run again with a seventh-place time of 20:17.60*. Keena Barker and Lizzy Graham also earned medals for their runs, with Keena in 17th with a time of 21:09.80* and Lizzy in 22nd with a time of 21:28.50*. Saturday marked a return to form for Lydia Casiano, who put up a personal-best race of 23:13.90* to earn 68th in the race. Katy Peacock shaved three minutes off her previous personal record, racing a time of 23:35.40* for 81st place. Gracie Thalls and Alex Parker finished out the top seven for the day in 88th and 98th, with respective times of 23:46.50* and 24:06.00*.
Olivia Bailey came in hot on Parker’s heels with a 99th-place finish and a time of 24:07.20*. The varsity race wrapped up with finishes from Allison Stout and debut-runner Bess Scheiben in 115th and 145th, with times of 25:10.50 and 27:07.20*, respectively.
Overall, strong finishes from the front of the pack led the girls to a 5th-place finish in a strong field of 17 teams.
In the boys’ reserve race, Josh Gilbert made a statement by breaking his past personal record by two minutes, finishing in 125th with a time of 22:37.10*. Lorenzo Nicoli made his RHS cross country debut, finishing his race in 150th place with a time of 24:03.20*. Titus Moore also took a huge chunk of time off his personal-record time, placing 165th with a three-minute PR of 25:34.40*.
“It was a big day for everybody,” said head coach Dylan Cope. “We hit some milestones! I think today was the first day that we finally showed our potential as a team.”
The Red Devils return to action in the last of two meets run in Richmond at the Wayne County Meet on Thursday, September 9th at 5:30 PM at IU East, followed by a short turnaround to Saturday’s Randolph Southern Invitational at Randolph Southern at 9:00 AM. Come see your Red Devils run locally!
Personal-record finishes are denoted by a starred time. All official times for this particular meet can be viewed on DirectAthletics.com.
By Hunter Lambright on Sep 4, 2021
