Photo by Seth Staskey Edison’s Josie Lesnansky was the top female finisher at the Buckeye 8 Championships Wednesday.

CAMBRIDGE — St. Clairsville has won now 15 Buckeye 8 Athletic League cross country titles — combined between boys and girls — in its history.

But head coach Tony Ciroli can’t ever remember any involving quite as much drama as the pair the Devils claimed Wednesday afternoon. And Ciroli wasn’t talking about anything that transpired during the race.

The Red Devils had transportation issues to the point where Ciroli talked to his girls runners as they traveled to Cambridge High School Wednesday afternoon about the strong possibility that they may legitimately miss the 5 p.m. start.

Not only did the bus arrive to pick up the Red Devils late, just east of Barnesville, the bus driver informed Ciroli he had to turn around and get another bus. The Red Devils met their new bus at Union Local High School and then proceeded to Cambridge, arriving just 15 minutes before the start.

“To win this is unbelievable because of how our day went to just get here,” Ciroli said. “People either crumble or rise to the top when they’re under the gun or under pressure. The girls rose to the top.”

The Red Devils used the short jaunt over the hill from where the buses parked to the starting line as their warm-up and then went about their business. St. Clairsville finished with 48 points, which was six fewer than runner-up Edison, which produced the meet’s overall winner.

“I honestly didn’t think we were going to make it with everything that was going on,” Ciroli said. “The kids wanted to run for a championship and my responsibility is to get them there. It was just one thing after another. Once I figured out we were going to make it, I told the girls to have their shoes on and be ready to go as soon as they got off the bus.”

Obviously, the message came across loud and clear.

St. Clairsville was able to put all five of its scorers inside the top 22 overall and after displacement, those moved up to inside the top 15.

Leading the way for the Devils was Mattie Arbenz, who ran 25:46 to finish 10th overall. Luci Banks was 12th in 26:18, while Rami Padilla was 13th in 26:34. Ava Poe and Alaina Thornburg rounded out the scorers for St. C., placing 17th and 21st overall, respectively.

“We got to the coaches meeting and they offered to hold up the race for 15 minutes, and I said, ‘don’t hold it up for us, we’re ready to roll,'” Ciroli continued. “Runners run and we had to get to the line and run. I am really proud of these kids.”

Edison, which has enjoyed a strong season thus far, received another sterling effort from talented freshman Josie Lesnansky, who continues to surprise even herself with how well she’s done so far this season.

“It feels really cool to win this,” Lesnansky said. “I have no running strategy. I just go run and see how I do. I came into the season not even sure I could run a 3.1-mile race. I don’t have any goals. I just want to continue to (run) for fun.”

Lesnansky was a wire-to-wire winner and clocked a solid 22:28 en route to the title. Brittney Mynster also earned a spot on the All-League team by virtue of placing ninth in 25:26.

Other All-League performers included Martins Ferry’s Madison Oberle, who was eighth in 25:21; Indian Creek’s Abigail Dennis, who was fourth in 24:00, and Katelynn Daugherty, who was sixth in 25:07; Bellaire’s senior duo of Bethany McElfresh (second overall) and Lizzie McAninch (fifth overall) and Cambridge’s Trystan King, who was seventh.

Photo by Seth Staskey
St. Clairsville’s Ben Shields was the top male finisher at the Buckeye 8 Championships Wednesday.

BOYS

Though the meet wasn’t as tense for the St. C. boys leading up to the race, the Red Devils still had to get it done on the course.

They were able to post a score of 63, which was 14 better than runner-up Bellaire to take the title.

St. Clairsville also produced the meet’s overall champion in junior Ben Shields, who continued his strong early portion of the season.

Shields, who won the OVCCL at Buckeye Local two weeks ago, won by 43 seconds with a time of 17:21.

“I felt slow, but I think the course played a role because it’s a lot tougher with more turns and hills,” Shields said. “I am really excited to win this meet.”

Shields wasn’t able to compete in last season’s Buckeye 8 meet due to a hip injury, but he made up for lost time.

“That injury put a damper on things, and I figured I might be able to win it (in 2023), so to win it this year is really exciting,” Shields said.

Shields was backed by Sawyer Bonnette, who earned All-League, with a fourth-place run. Caleb Bryniarski (13th), Zach McKeever (21st) and Evan Yost (24th) rounded out the scorers for the Devils.

Runner-up Bellaire had a pair of runners earn All-League. Aidan Brady and Stefan Palenicek finished seventh and eighth, respectively.

Other All-League finishers included: Edison’s Gage Cable (6th), Cambridge’s Keegan Mathers (9th) and Nicholas Hatfield (10th), East Liverpool’s Maddox Roach (2nd), Beaver Local’s Jeremiah Moore (3rd) and Harrison Central’s Sean Forrester (fifth).