TROY – Greenville had a strong start to the 2025 cross country season. The Green Wave cross country teams started the season this past week with not one, but two meets. The Lady Wave got things started, running to a second-place finish behind very deep and talented host Troy at the Lost Creek Invitational.
Leading the way for the Wave in the 3000-meter event were Freshman Akisha Abarquez and Sophomore Leah Force, both finishing in the top ten. Next in for the Wave were Freshmen Callie Marker and Lydia Force, placing 13th and 16th overall. Final scoring was rounded out by Sophomore Meredith Hunt, 23rd, Senior Ava Glass, 24th, and Junior Jordyn Lopez, 30th.
The Men’s Team closed out the night, also racing 3000 meters, placed behind host Troy and Milton Union, while edging out MVL league member Piqua by two points for third place. The Men placed seven runners in the top 34, led by Seniors Jack Suter (19th), Dominic Tanner (23rd), and Owen Tamplin (34th). Other scorers were Freshmen CT McRill 22nd and Ryan Rosinski 27th, and Juniors Blaze Burton 29th and Jack Fitzgerald 30th.
On Saturday, the Wave traveled to Springfield to compete in the Northwestern Invitational. In their first 5000-meter event of the season, both the Men’s and Ladies’ Teams placed second behind Division I Hilliard Darby. Greenville is competing at the Division 2 level this season. The men’s race got things started and saw CT McRill leading the team with a 13th-place finish with a time of 18:46 in the Freshman’s first official High School 5k. Following CT were Jack Suter 16th, Blaze Burton 18th, Dominic Tanner 25th, and Jack Fitzgerald 28th.
The girls were led by Callie Marker, placing 12th in the time of 22:40. She was followed by Meredith Hunt, 16th, Akisha Abarquez, 20th, Lydia Force, 21st, and rounding out scoring Leah Forch, 24th. First-year head Coach Dennis Eckstein was pleased with the results for the opening week.
“On the lady’s side, we have a young team with solid leadership from our two Seniors, Ava Glass and Lily Wisner,” Eckstein stated. “We set very lofty team goals while at camp in July; this first week of the season sets us on our way to achieving them”.
“For the men’s team, it was great to see CT coming out strong and competing with the upperclassmen to start his 5000-meter High School career. CT was the MVL Middle School Champion last season at 3200 meters. Looking at the results from Saturday, his freshmen teammates were not far behind the top finishers. I expect to see them pushing the upperclassmen soon as they adapt to the longer race distance.”
“Starting the season with positive results sets us up for a successful season. Our number one priority since the beginning of summer conditioning has been to be a Team and not just a group of individual runners, this week we competed as a Team and had great results as a Team. Senior leadership is key to us. Jack Suter keeps things in order for me with the boys and makes sure everyone is where they should be, when they should be. He’s a very hard worker when it comes to workouts and always motivates his younger teammates to follow his example.”
“Ava and Lily keep things fun and light with the Ladies, providing a great balance to the hard workouts we go through each week as we prepare to race,” Coach Eckstein concluded.
