The Eastern Midlands Conference Championship was contested on a flat cross-country course Thursday at Bennington High School.
“It's a nice cool day to run, too,” Blair Bear Calin O'Grady said.
Coach Carson Norine's BHS boys took third out of six teams across 5 kilometers, while the girls earned sixth. Dawson Fricke, O'Grady, Zac Keeling, Ted Lueders and Reece Ewoldt all earned top-15 individual finishes, too.
“It was pretty good,” Fricke said after taking eighth in 16:38.87. “I feel like there are a lot of really good guys who pace themselves really well. And there's, like, two or three guys who had huge kicks at the end.”
O'Grady, meanwhile, was 12th.
“I feel very, very happy to be able to break 17 (minutes),” he said after stopping the clock at 16:53.33.
Keeling, meanwhile, was 14th in 17:11.93, sprinting across the finish line just ahead of Lueders, who ran 5K in 17:12.28 for 15th.
Ewoldt was the Bears' top finisher in the girls' race, taking 15th as well. She clocked in at 20:38.5.
Caleb Funk (27th), Isaac Field (34th), Allie Czapla (26th), Lainey Bilau (29th), Addie Sullivan (31st), Bella Matzen (34th) and Chloe Schrick (36th) ran during the conference's varsity races, too, while Peter Clarke led Blair's junior varsity effort, placing sixth in 18:24.31.
Norine's squad next competes 3 p.m. Thursday at the Class B-1 District Meet. It will be contested at Elkhorn Mount Michael with state qualifications on the line.
