Walser wins at Union County while rest of Indians run near season best times
By Justin Daniels | Sep 13, 2023 10:29 AM
The Indian Cross Country teams made the long drive down to Union County on Tuesday for the Union County Invitational and came away with a winner and some of the best times that have been ran by the team this season. The boys race got the meet started and all four boys on the team had one goal in mind and that was to run a new personal best or at least their season best and they all almost achieved their goals. Conner Walser was the first to cross the finish line placing first with a time of 17:36 just two seconds shy of his season best. Walser led from the start of the race and as the race went on his lead grew before beating second place by forty seconds. Levi Clark was the next Indian to cross the line as he ran to a new personal record of 20:12 and a 10th place finish. Clark was able to battle with the top 10 throughout the race and was on pace to run a sub 20 minute race until the final mile where he had to battle runners and the mud in the woods section. Conner Cline has been impressive all season and Tuesday was no different. Cline placed 15th with a time of 20:56 and a new season best. Conner has taken nearly two minutes off of his time in less than a month since the season has started. Scott O'Connor may have had the weirdest finishing time out of everyone. Scotty finished in 28th place with a time of 24:01.5. That is the exact same time that he ran on Saturday at the Randolph Southern Invitational. O'Connor ran one of his best races of the season and was able to battle his way into an award spot on the final 200m as he passed two runners before crossing the finish line. In the girls race Ava Jefferis left off where she did on Saturday as she once again ran a sub 23 minute race as she battled with the girls from Winchester. Jefferis crossed the finish line in 4th with a time of 22:53 and one minute faster than she ran last year at the meet. Ava and the rest of the county girls have created a bond this season and have battled each race to help each other achieve their best times. The Indians return to the course this Saturday at the Centerville Invitational with the boys race beginning at 9:00 am followed by the girls.