OBETZ — Richland County welcomed home its newest All-Ohio cross country runners on Saturday afternoon.
In all, six cross country runners finished in the top 30 of their races at Fortress Obetz during the running of the Ohio High School Athletic Association Cross Country State Championships to snag all-state honors for themselves and their teams.
Mansfield Christian’s dynamic duo of Riley Patrick and Meagan Them started the big day for Richland County by finishing 14th and 16th, respectively. Patrick ran an 18:41.48 to grab a top 15 spot while Them added an 18:46.44 to earn a spot on the podium. Both times were personal records and broke the Mansfield Christian school record.
“It feels great,” Them said. “I went into this season on the first day of practice and wrote goals on two different notecards. One was a personal goal and the other was spiritual. My spiritual goal was to make Christ known this season through all the little things and how our team could through everything we do with our successes and failures. My personal goal was All-Ohio so it was fun to write that down and show my coach I was shooting for the stars. I finished in the 70s last year so to come out here and get top 20 is crazy.”