Division 1 Boys
Matt Duvall Grabs Gold Over Nathan Moore
One of only two boys in the state with a sub-15:00 personal best, Pickerington North's Matt Duvall was looking to secure his first career state championship after finishing seventh in 2018 and barely missing out in the recent indoor and outdoor track seasons. He would get the job done on Saturday, but it was hardly easy.
Early on, Duvall found himself in second with Uniontown-Lake's Nathan Moore, a junior who dramatically finished right next to him earlier in the year at Saturday Night Lights, five seconds behind Rogers' Gabe Foster. Foster, undefeated since September 14th's Dave's XC Invite and boasting a personal best of 15:40.11, had taken it out hard in hopes of pulling in a massive upset.
Having separated from the field, Foster built up a gap on the chase pack led by Duvall and Moore. University School's Justin Iler crossed under 4:54 as well with everyone else behind those four.
Foster came back to the group and eventually was swallowed up by the mass of runners. Spectators waiting at the 2 mile for the Rogers senior had to wait for 20 athletes to pass first before he crossed at 10:08. Meanwhile, at the front of the race, Duvall continued to battle it out with Iler and Moore, crossing the mark in 9:50.60. The next closest athlete to this three-pack was Dublin Jerome's Elliott Cook in 9:54, four seconds ahead of St. Xavier's Nathan Mountain.
Duvall, Moore, and Iler all separated after that, coming through all three together 14 seconds ahead of the field with 800 meters left. It was a free-for-all between the three through that final stretch. All three battling between each other, but as the dust settled, Duvall's 2:18 last 800 was enough to hold off his competitors. He finished in 15:13.00 with Moore crossing in 15:19.10 and Iler finishing third in 15:25.60.
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St. Xavier Ekes Out Team Victory Over Surging Mason
St. Xavier was the clear favorite heading into the weekend's festivities. The top ranked team in the state regardless of division, they boasted a 15:43 1-5 average and 3 of the top 30 athletes in the entire state.
Nathan Mountain led the squad on Saturday with a fifth place finish. The junior, coming off a Region 4 individual victory, stuck in the top 5 throughout the second half of the race and provided a necessary low score for the Bombers.
Holding a comfortable lead over the field throughout the race, that lead started to shrink in the last 800 meters as Mason began to put in a late bid for the championship trophy. Mason picked up 8 points in the final half mile to make St. Xavier's margin of victory a mere five points: 92 to 97.
Coming across second for the St. X was Thomas Walters (15:59.40, 28th), followed closely by Conor Bohrer (15:59.60, 29th) and Tim Foster (16:07.1, 33rd). Securing the victory for St. Xavier was Jonathan Vonderhaar in 69th (16:28.0). The win was their first since they went back-to-back in 2012, 2013.
The key to Mason's attack on St. Xavier was a late surge from sophomore Aiden Amshoff. Amshoff came through the 4.2K marker in 23rd in 13:25.5. His blazing 2:22 last 800 was good enough to move him up five scoring spots to 14th overall. A 17 place jump in the overall standings from number 5 runner Rajan Singh also helped the cause, but they still ended up finishing a close second. Notably, St. Xavier and Mason finished under 100 points and the next closest squad was Solon at 211, painting a picture of a two horse race with several individual athletes separating out the team scorers.