'They hit it out of the park today': Rittman girls XC finishes state runner-up

OBETZ — It was something that Rittman’s girls cross country team has been planning for two years.

And on Saturday, they got it.

With one of the youngest lineups in the Division III field, and making their program debut at the OHSAA State Championships, Rittman walked away with the state runner-up trophy in front of a packed crowd at Fortress Obetz.

“I think that goes to the last two years together, we really talked about becoming a team and how to run as a team, it's not about the individual places to us, it's much more about what we can do together,” Rittman coach Matt Snyder said. “I feel like this year, with the adversity that we've had, I think they just bought into that a lot. And with experience, gaining confidence as they go.

“I really thought they hit it out of the park today.”

Indeed, they did as they capped off what has been a storybook season by having three of their five scoring runners place in the top 40 individually as the team compiled 123 points to finish behind Minster (62), who captured its third straight state title.

Not too shabby for a team that is dominated by freshman and sophomores making their respective state debuts and a team that was seeded fifth coming into the meet.

But all the Rittman runners — each of them with ‘Run for keeps’ written on their arms in black markers — made sure to leave their mark.

The Trek to State: Rittman girls win Boardman Regional XC team title

“This whole week we've been talking about how we've worked the whole entire season just to get here,” sophomore Brooke Bowlby said. “It's been a lot of fun. I'm not going to lie, it was hard during the race, but we had a ton of people on this team run their best races today and I couldn't be more proud.”

Freshman Annabelle Snyder led that charge with a 20th-place finish in 19:00.01, with Brooke Bowlby (33rd place, 19:25.66) and Ryver Ramsier (38th, 19:32.49) not too far behind.

Snyder earned All-Ohio honors with her personal run, but it was all about making sure the team finished where they expected to be.

“Just being able to fight for my team really pushed me through,” she said. “We just needed to run our best and know that we had enough to finish.

“It really helped having my team with me, because I couldn't have done it alone.”

Both Adyson Fose (58th, 19:58.18) and Merrick Gibson (96th, 20:34.83) rounded out the scoring for the Indians, while fellow Indians Selah Amos (133rd, 21:24.59) and Aquinnah Rufener (183rd, 24:21.48) also competed.

And for a group of underclassmen who had a pair of runner-up finishes at the OHSAA Middle School State Championships, they’re no strangers to having high expectations, and meeting them.

“If I'm honest, all week in team meeting we were talking about what it was going to take to be able to be second place,” Snyder said. “We thought that was an achievable goal, a high goal but an achievable one. So, all week we talked about how we needed to be ready and how you prepare yourself to be ready, and they executed the race plan so well.

“They were really awesome today.”

With the majority of their roster coming back next season, expectations are high for a return trip in 2024.

But for now, they’re going to enjoy this one.

“It feels really, really good,” Bowlby said. “We celebrated last week and then we put it on pause and now we're going to celebrate again because it's a big achievement for our school to come as far as we did.”

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Girls XC: Rittman finishes runner-up at Div. III state meet