ALANNA WILLIAMS Martins Ferry

PICKERINGTON — The Bellaire boys’and girls’ teams, along the Shadyside’s girls’ team and several individuals punched their tickets to the Ohio Division III and IV state cross country meets during regional action Saturday morning at Pickerington North High School.

The state championships will be held Saturday at Obetz Fortress and Memorial Park in Obetz, a suburb of Columbus. The D-IV girls run at 10 a.m., with the boys starting at 10:40. The D-III girls take off at 11:50, followed by the boys at 12:30 p.m.

DIVISION IV

Region 14

Girls

The Big Reds placed third in the team race with 117 points while the Tigers were fourth with 134. This will be the fifth time a Bellaire Cross Country team has been to the state championships, but the first time in two decades. Bellaire qualified in 2002-05.

Freshman Kamden Snider continued her fine season with a second-place finish in 18-minutes, 51.31-seconds. That was just over five seconds behind Shenandoah’s Ida Estadt (18:46.39).

Also scoring for the Big Reds were Kayla Edgar (10th, 20:06.64); Liz Mayer (31st, 21:21.00); Gigi Kendle (36th, 21:41.37) and Lyla Blazek (39th, 21:56.89).

Shadyside’s top runner was senior Chloe Meholovitch who timed out in 19:33.99 to place seventh. She was followed by Gabby Kosky (12th, 20:11.82); Jaylynne Johnson (23rd, 21:00.05); Aylah Albright (46th, 22:20.86) and Bayden Parr (47th, 22:22.13).

Boys

The Big Reds placed fourth with 161 points, one behind Garaway. This is their seventh state championship appearance, but like the girls, their first since 2002. They also made it in 1958, 1966, 1971, 1985 and 2001.

Landen Perdue clocked out in 16:07.56 which was good enough for second place overall.

Other scoring runners for Bellaire included Kaijon Cerritos (26th, 17:26.59); Brae Schmidli (36th, 17:52.19); Kai Brehm (17:53.33) and Keyser Taylor (18:41.31).

DIVISION III

Region 10

Girls

Martins Ferry’s Alanna Williams continued to dominate with a first-place finish in 18:10.95, which was almost 15 seconds better than Claymont’s Kali Wallace (18:23.16).

Williams earned all-Ohio honors last spring in the 800- and 1600-meter runs at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium on the campus of Ohio State University.

Boys

Union Local senior Connor Bendo finished second overall in 15:37.01