MIDDLEFIELD—Hawken placed five runners among the top 15—including the top three finishers—to win the Valley Division title at the 2018 Chagrin Valley Conference cross country championships on Saturday.
The Hawks finished with 30 points while second-place Independence had 38 and Kirtland finished third with 84.
“I liked that they competed a little bit,” said Hawken coach Chris Farroni. “They overcame the adversity of the rain and damp course and cold weather, which is something we talked about all week.”
Ella Gilson won the individual title with a time of 18:20. Juliana Metz was second with a time of 19:11 and Julia Newman finished third in 20:05.
Lena Sylvan and Adele Metres also finished among the top 15. Sylvan finished 11th with a time of 21:48 and Metres was 13th in 22:17.
While the Hawks won the small school division at the conference meet, they’ll compete in the Division II district tournament next weekend against many of the schools who competed in the Chagrin Division on Saturday.
“It’s a good race to size up with both divisions running together because some of the teams in the Chagrin Division are folks that we’re looking for in our Division II district and regional,” Farroni said. “It was good to be on the same course with them to see how we stacked up against them.”
