Steven Wright | Greene County News
Legacy Christian senior Caroline Hamilton checks the board at the finish line before beginning her final push. Hamilton won the girls Division III regional race in Troy on Saturday.
TROY — The run along the bank of the Great Miami Valley river in Troy isn’t the most daunting many cross country runners face during the year. It’s not even close to being a favorite of Caroline Hamilton’s.
Winning a championship on it, though, does make her like it a little bit more.
Hamilton captured the individual girls Division III Regional Championship on Saturday at the meet held near Troy High School.
“All I can say is thank you God,” Hamilton said. “Whether I do well or do not, he’s brought me here and I’m so thankful I was able to run here.”
Hamilton ran a time of 18:10.5 on the course. It was not a personal best, as she set that a week prior in also becoming sectional champion on the course at Cedarville University. It was still a time she is still proud of getting after finishing almost 51 seconds ahead of any other competitor in the race.
“Not to be ungrateful, but I’ve never liked this course very much,” Hamilton said. “The river being right by it can kind of make it squishy and wet. The course at Cedarville has the gradual hills and stuff and that makes this one more challenging because it’s super flat.”
Hamilton ran at the front of the pack during the three loops around the flat area next to the river and by the time she got to move up the bank and onto the few bumps in her path the closest anything on the course was to her was the cart in front of her helping show the path to navigate.
“I never thought I could be a regional champion,” Hamilton said. “Four years ago I didn’t even want to do cross country. I’m just so thankful to be here as I couldn’t do it on my own.”
She certainly didn’t as the remainder of her Knights’ teammates that did not qualify for the meet lined the course to root her on and were at the finish line to help celebrate her win. The boys team joined in too following their race earlier in the morning.
Hamilton last year finished in 26th place at the state meet with a time in the mid 19s. She said she has prepped herself that there will be two other runners in this year’s run that have personal best times that are faster than what she has accomplished during any meet. Hamilton’s time on Saturday was the fastest of any runner across the state in D-III at regional meets, though, including the time ran by defending state champion Rebecca Geiss from Heartland Christian at the Boardman meet in Youngstown.
She thinks it’s a stretch of a goal to be able to win, but it’s not one she is backing down from as she will be set to run at the Fortress Obetz course in Columbus on Saturday.
“My goal is to run with them and never let them go,” Hamilton said. “Hopefully I’ll be top three at least and we’ll see if we can get the dub. Who knows really, so I’m just going to go out there and have fun because it’s my last year of high school.”
Other state qualifiers
The D-III girls race also saw Cedarville’s Ellie Mark qualify as an individual for state for a second straight year. She finished fifth overall in 19:18.7. Mandy Mark was right behind in eighth place and also advanced as a freshman. Cedarville got fifth in the team standings.
The boys run for D-III had Cedarville tie for first in the team standings to qualify for state. Archer Holston got fifth overall with a 16:46.e time, and Stewart Kroh was the next finisher 1.9 seconds later.
Levi Thompson of Legacy Christian got 13th overall and make state as an individual by 2.4 seconds. The Knights as a team were one spot off qualifying with a fifth place finish.
Carroll in the D-II runs had both boys and girls move on too. The girls as a team ran in third place, with Anna Thurman getting fourth as an individual with a 19:05.6 run, and Ruby Gross was fifth. The boys got Connor Kramer through as an individual with a 16th place run to get the final spot.
The D-I races ended the day and began with Beavercreek’s boys team finishing in fifth to get the last qualifying position for state. Jackson Davis ran in fifth place with a 15:27.4 to be the team’s best finisher.
In the girls run, Allison High of Bellbrook comfortably got a spot in state with a 13th place run and a 19-flat time.
Contact Steven Wright at 937-502-4498 and follow on X (formerly Twitter) @Steven_Wright_.
