Linerode wins; a tiebreak and two runner-up finishes tell the team story
TJ Linerode won the IVC middle-school boys race Saturday, but Indian Valley’s team championship bid came down to the sixth finisher.
Linerode ran 11:47.06 over 3,200 meters at Sandy Valley, beating Claymont’s Kevin Rodriguez by 6.62 seconds. Indian Valley’s Todd Fillman finished third in 11:58.86, only 0.62 seconds ahead of Buckeye Trail’s Emmett Taylor. The first four boys all finished under twelve minutes.
Indian Valley and East Canton each scored 41. East Canton won because sixth runner Braxton Campbell finished fifteenth overall, ahead of the Braves’ Aidan McMillen in twenty-fifth. Linerode and Fillman gave Indian Valley two of the first three places, but the depth farther back decided the tie.
Claymont finished third with 67 points and Garaway fourth with 87. Garaway’s Miles Yoder was ninth in 12:14.82. Indian Valley’s Gage Kreinbihl finished one place ahead of him in a season-best 12:14.43, a separation of just 0.39 seconds.
Claymont’s Maelee Salsberry placed second in the IVC girls race in 13:58.51 and Garaway’s Bristol Angel third in 14:07.58. Malvern’s Charlee Schreffler won in 12:50.36 and led the Hornets to a 25–31 team victory over East Canton. Claymont’s Harleigh Carpenter ran a season-best 15:14.21 for fifth, followed by Garaway’s Malia Miller in sixth. Buckeye Trail’s Kaylie Shull finished ninth in 16:11.27.
At Crooksville, East Muskingum finished second in both MVL races. Morgan beat the boys 52–58, with Miles Burga fifth in 12:04.3 and Cam Thompson sixth in 12:07.6. Their 3.3-second separation gave East Muskingum a pair near the front. Meadowbrook’s Ethan Singleton was seventh in a season-best 12:20.8, helping the Colts finish fifth with 107.
East Muskingum’s girls came even closer to the title. Morgan won 42–44 behind Belle Jones and Harper Jones in first and second. Olivia Townsend finished sixth for East Muskingum in 13:50.2, followed by Chloe Wilkinson eighth in 13:56.7, Becca Bradley ninth in 14:00.7 and Nora Burdette tenth in 14:01.7. Only 11.5 seconds separated that first four.
Eve Eberly completed East Muskingum’s scoring in eleventh. Townsend, Wilkinson, Bradley and Burdette all ran season bests and now occupy sixth through ninth on the area girls season-best list. Meadowbrook’s HollyEva Keglovitz finished twenty-second in a season-best 17:37.8.
Cambridge’s Sophie Callahan retains the area girls lead at 13:35, with Garaway’s Angel at 13:35.18 and Claymont’s Salsberry at 13:37.28. Caldwell’s Conner Wilson retains the boys lead at 11:12, followed by Taylor at 11:16. Those are season lists; Saturday’s head-to-head finishes supply the championship order.