County meets set for today

Staff report

Area high school cross country runners will take part in three county meets today around the Valley.

Mahoning County runners will compete at Austintown Twp. Park on Kirk Rd., while the Trumbull County meet will be held at Woodland Park in McDonald.

The Columbiana County event will be hosted by East Palestine at City Park.

In the Mahoning meet, Ryan Roush of South Range will look to build on his win at the Suburban meet last week. He’ll be challenged by teammate Tim Nichols, Boardman’s Mark Hadley and Alan Burns, and Alexander White of Austintown Fitch.

Poland’s McKinsie Klim, Carli Sebest and Melissa Klim were among the top finishers at the Suburban, but Fitch’s Carissa Jenkins missed the event with an injury after winning the Boardman Spartan Invitational. Bailey Fischer and Emma Lunne of Canfield both finished in the top 10 at the Suburban meet.

At the Trumbull meet, McDonald’s Kyle Joynes is the favorite, but Maplewood’s Wyatt Hartman and Jonathan Richmond of Liberty will be top challengers.

The girls race favorite is Alanna Shamrock of Maplewood, while Sarah Jones of McDonald and Morgan Buckley of Howland expected to contend for top honors.

The Columbiana County boys favorite is Chad Bosel of Lisbon, along with Nate Boyer of East Liverpool and James Kataro of United.

Among the girls, Ashley Lydic of Columbiana won last week’s Suburban meet, while Allison Parks of United finished sixth.

Bobbi Jo Evans and Carmen Phillips of Lisbon also placed in the top 20 last week.

Salem’s boys and girls teams should also be contenders.