Sibila, Minerva girls, boys win EBC titles

Ricky Sibila erased a sixth-place finish at the 2023 Eastern Buckeye Conference cross country championships with a win Saturday on the course at Marlington High School. 

The Carrollton senior’s time of 16:00.50 was 17 seconds faster than second place Grasyn Rettig of Minerva, who finished with a time 16:17.10.

Minerva won the boys team title with five runners in the top 11 slots.  Rowen Hoffee placed fifth, followed by teammates Ryan Cassidy 6th, Owen Yoder 8th and Tyson Fetty 11th .

It was the first championship title for the Lions in 20 years.

Minerva tallied 32 points, followed by Salem 42, Marlington 78, Carrollton104, Alliance 135 and West Branch 155.

Carrollton sophomore Carter Ash finished 26th (18:42) followed by junior John Childs 27th, freshman Grant Thompson 31st, freshman Andrew Childs 37th, Turner Eddy 39th and Landyn Wade 42nd in the field of 64 runners. 

Girls race

The Minerva girls dominated the girls race, taking five of the top seven places to win the team title with 21 points. Marlington followed in second with 61 points, Salem third with 61 (tie breaker determined placing), Carrollton fourth 110 and Alliance fifth 141.

Marlington sophomore Irelyn Johnson won the race in 18:53.90 followed by Minerva senior Katie Ison in second with a time of 19:19.50. Minerva runners Makenzie Beavers (sophomore) and Tateum Richard (freshman) placed third and fourth, followed by Hannah Ison 6th, Gabby Lupshu 8th, Annabelle Crissman 9th and Kalya Crissman 15th. 

Junior Kylie Ujcich led Carrollton’s effort, placing 11th (20:17.80) followed by Ella Barkan 29th, Olivia McCort 30th, Norah Kerr-Jung 32nd, Gabi McCort 34th, Zoe Kuhn-Goodspeed 36th and Ava Kail 44th in the field of 53 runners. 

“We are so proud of Ricky and both teams,” said Warrior Coach Nancy Boley. “We knew going into this meet, it was going to be a fast race for both the girls and boys teams, and it was. 

“From the beginning of the boys race, Ricky pushed himself to take that lead, and he never looked back. All of his hard work is really coming together right now. It’s exciting to finally have an EBC champion for the first time since 2016.

“As a team, the boys are really starting to work together and we had a lot of good effort. They were able to be competitive as a team, our conference is just really good as a whole. Now, we look forward to the district race in Cambridge this weekend and hopefully keep improving,” she continued.

“We knew all season, Minerva, Marlington and Salem were going to be tough in the girls race. Our girls raced hard, we had some PRs. They are excited for the rest of post season starting with the district meet this weekend.”