FINDLAY — Lexington boys and girls cross country coach Denise Benson owns eight state championships and six runner-up trophies during her illustrious career.
But she may have never had a happier day of coaching in her life than she did during the Division II district cross country championships on Saturday, Oct. 24 at Owens Community College.
The Minutemen captured the team championship in dominating fashion with just 42 team points placing well ahead of runner-up Fremont Ross with 126 for their 12 district championship in program history. But that was far from the reason for the immense pride shown by Benson after the race as she jumped up and down and shouted, “Seven for seven!”
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All seven Lexington runners produced new personal records in the race for their best team performance of the entire season. Senior Will Hooper took third with a 15:48.7 while senior John Barton was fifth with a 16:03.0, junior Christian Estep was sixth with a 16:04.0, sophomore Mathias Bender was eighth with a 16:19.7 and Chidalu Ezike rounded out the Top 5 runners in 20th with a 16:57.1. For good measure, sophomore Jace Dawson was 27th with a 17:16.2 and sophomore Caden Henry was 32nd with a 17:32.2.
All lifetime bests for the runners.
“To get seven PRs from this young team with four runners who have never ran in the postseason before is unbelievable,” Benson said. “You can see their confidence growing every single day and they are closing gaps. Today was our first 7-for-7 of the season and it was a lot of fun.”
The 2026 Minutemen join teams from 2005, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2021, 2024 and 2025 to bring home a district championship, something Hooper takes a lot of pride in.
“It does mean a lot to win a district championship,” Hooper said. “This course isn’t my favorite, so the fact we were able to go and do what we did today is such a blessing. This team is stronger than people think.”
The 2026 Minutemen came into the season with low expectations from those outside of the program despite winning the Division II state championship a year ago, but losing some of the program’s best talent in history tempered the expectations for the new season.
“It is a lot of inspiration,” Hooper said. “There were no expectations coming into the season which is weird for a team that just won a state title last year. The majority of our team has never run in a postseason race before and each and every one of them did great.”
Only Hooper, Bartone and Estep had any experience running in the postseason, but no one could tell, other than Hooper of course.
“I could tell the were a little nervous because they were more fidgety than normal, but I have no words to properly explain how great they did,” Hooper said. “I think having myself and John (Bartone) along with our coaches just helped everyone be comfortable while also knowing that this is going to be hard.”
They sure made it look easy as they head into next week’s regional meet expecting to have a say in who takes home the regional championship.
“We are the defending state champions, so we really had to walk a fine line this year between putting pressure on them and protecting tradition versus backing off too much,” Benson said. “I have been telling them since conference week that there are no longer any more excuses. Everyone who came before them had to withstand the pressure and do it for the team.
“You saw each one give it all for the team. Mathias Bender ran a 16:19 in his first postseason race ever, Chidalu Ezike was our No. 5 and broke 17 minutes. These guys weren’t even alternates last year and had huge breakthroughs. Our captains, John Bartone and Will Hooper, were phenomenal leaders.”
Shelby earned a team qualifying spot by taking ninth overall with 221 points. Jake Frangella led the Whippets in 31st place with a 17:27.9 while Isaac Friebel was 39th with a 17:40.5, Avery Schroeder was 48th with a 17:55.6, Kolton Parsons was 51st with a 17:58.0 and Grayson Schroeder was 52nd with a 17:58.7 to round out the top five runners.
Ontario finished 10th as a team with 221 points and earned a team qualifying spot to the regional meet. Logan Sesco led the Warriors in 21st place with a 17:03.4 while Liam Hershberger was 22nd with a 17:03.9, Alex Simmering was 24th with a 17:10.5, Braxton Schneider was 66th with an 18:20.8 and Jackson Buttil was 88th with a 19:19.4 to round out the top five runners.
Earning individual qualifying spots were Ashland’s Oliver Watson (9th; 16:20.2) Madison’s Evan Larsen (18th; 16:55.8), Mansfield Senior’s Gavin Camak (40th; 17:40.9), Madison’s Jackson Brummett (42nd; 17:46.3), Madison’s Gannon Conway (53rd; 18:00.3), Ashland’s Austin Metzger (57th; 18:05.8), Mansfield Senior’s Prince Converse (58th; 18:09.0), Ashland’s Hunter Smith (59th; 18:11.6), Ashland’s Brayden Burgett (67th; 18:21.1), Ashland’s Cameron Bosley (70th; 18:31.5) and Ashland’s Oscar Parillo (72nd; 18:34.2).
The Top 10 teams earned automatic qualifying spots to regionals and the Top 20 runners not on those teams earned individual qualifying spots.
Lexington’s Gabi Twedt breaks own sophomore program record
After breaking the Lexington Lady Lex cross country program’s record for a sophomore runner last week, Gabi Twedt was at it again lowering it even more after she posted an 18:21.3 to take third overall in the Division II district girls cross country championships.
“It is really special,” Twedt said. “Last week, I had a couple of girls from West Holmes pushing me and it helped my time, so I wanted to try and stay with the front pack today to see if I could lower it. I realized at about the one-mile mark that they were going to go ahead of me, but I just kept pushing while not focus on chasing my personal place, but a spot that would help the team.”
Twedt paced Lexington to a third-place team finish with 75 points finishing behind district champion Fremont Ross with 51 and runner-up Anthony Wayne with 69. Jenna Halfhill was seventh with an 18:52.3 while Evalynn Adkins was 10th with a 19:07.2, Brynlee Brokaw was 27th with a 20:49.3 and Nyra Loy was 28th with a 20:58.1 to round out the top five runners for Lexington.
The third-place finish snapped a streak of 14 straight district championships for Lady Lex.
“Gabi broke her own record and Jenna Halfhill is starting to return to her sophomore year form when she broke 19,” Benson said. “Evalynn Adkins had a huge PR and was great at the front of the pack for us. I was hoping for second today, but getting third behind Anthony Wayne’s outstanding pack, I am proud that we continued to improve.”
Ashland took eighth as a team and earned the final team qualifying spot out to the regional meet next week. Arya Fisher led the Arrows in 23rd place with a 20:25.8 while Jillian Stickney was 32nd with a 21:17.8, Hadley Bechtol was 47th with a 22:10.8, Melody Smith was 50th with a 22:21.8 and Brynlynn Burgett was 57th with a 22:53.5 to round out the top five runners.
Earning individual qualifying spots were Ontario’s Ava Zehe (31st; 21:14.4), Hudsyn Pelphrey (44th; 21:53.4), Zoey Shaffer (49th; 22:11.5), Molly Sapp (54th; 22:35.6) and Olivia Sandwall (59th; 23:09.7) and Madison’s Casey Rachel (71st; 24:23.7) and Livia Grove (73rd; 24:57.2).
The Top 8 teams and the Top 16 runners not on those eight teams earned regional meet berths.
Shelby girls advance out of Division III
The Shelby Whippets will be moving on to next week’s regional cross country championships after taking third place as a team with 97 points.
Anna Will led the Whippets in third place with a 19:00.1 while Natalia Peters was 15th with a 20:34.3, Jordyn Thauvette was 19th with a 20:47.2, Kendall Bowman was 27th with a 21:06.3 and Emma Mahek was 33rd with a 21:40.7 to round out the top five runners.
Will continued a strong two weeks after winning the individual Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference championship last week with her lowest time of the season.
“We knew this course was going to be flat and we had good weather coming, so all of the stars kind of aligned,” Will said. “We have been training like it is peak season and we are hitting our best times now. I had a lot of competition to run against today and had a great pack, so that helped out a ton.”
After winning the MOAC team championship by one point last week and nearly sneaking into the No. 2 spot at the district meet, the Whippets are hitting their stride as a team at the perfect time.
“Throughout the season, I kept telling them that they are going to be running tired,” Shelby girls cross country coach Adam Schroeder said. “But to also trust me that now is the time that they will finally see times drop. The early season is fun, but this is the time that matters so we have a great mentality coming into the postseason and they have faith in what we are doing.”
The Division II and III regional cross country championships will be Oct. 31 at Boyer-Hedges Park in Tiffin.
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: 7 PRs help Lexington nab Division II district boy cross country title