NEW MADISON – The WOAC Girls Cross Country Championship was hosted at Tri-Village this year. The young ladies of Newton High School won the 2024 WOAC league Meet and also claimed the top runner and coach of the year.
Team placements:
1st Newton 25
2nd Mississinawa Valley 62
3rd Franklin Monroe 78
4th Arcanum 81
5th Ansonia 113
Here are the top 10 individual runners’ placement in this year’s race with all of them earning first Team All-Conference Honors:
1st Michaela Flora Newton 19:45.8
2nd Taylee Woodbury Mississinawa Valley 21:18.7
3rd Claire Stull Newton 21:30.1
4th Cole Thompson Newton 21.45.7
5th Emma Lavey Bradford 22.02.3
6th Emily Flora Newton 22.10.2
7th Stella Fugate Franklin Monroe 22.11.5
8th Ella Warren Arcanum 22.22.1
9th Olivia Creager Ansonia 22.24.0
10th Sydney Whalen National Trail 22.34.6
The Newton girls team won the league meet pleasing Coach Aubrey Hughes who was named the 2024 WOAC Girls Cross Country Coach of the Year. Aubrey also earned the Boys Coach of the Year honors back in 2021.
Coach Hughes was pleased with her team’s performance and excited about their future especially since she has such a young team.
“The girls have been really strong most of this year and they’ve had a nice pack. They’re all very young; freshmen, sophomores and we have some juniors so everybody will be returning next year, which is pretty awesome in itself,” Hughes stated.
The pack she talked about saw Newton take four of the top six spots which included freshman Michaela Flora who was named the 2024 WOAC Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year.
Coach Hughes is excited for her freshman runner and although she’s having a great year, she has plenty to learn and potential to grow.
“She is still learning and has a lot to go. We started off the year at the prestigious OHSAA Early Season Invitational event in Columbus at Fortress Obetz. You know, it’s scary, you’re a freshman, and we throw her right into the big boys. Some kids thrive on that, and some don’t. She took it as, okay, now I understand what I need to do, and we saw her gain confidence. She started focusing on our workouts, exactly what I had for her versus maybe what we have for the rest of the group. It’s individualized but I think she’s starting to realize … hmm, maybe it’s okay if I run up with some of the boys now. She’s a great kid, too, great personality, a very humble kid and a strong teammate,” Hughes praised.
Coach Hughes has other talented runners that also includes sophomore Claire Stull 3rd, freshman Cole Thompson 4th and junior Emma Flora 6th.
“They are hard workers they show up and not a lot shakes them, which you don’t always have that often throughout a team. They came here today and knew what they had to do and all that hard work they put in this summer and in practice carried into October and has paid off, Hughes said.
But coach Hughes and the team have more they would like to accomplish.
“I’d like to see this momentum carry on into the districts and even into the regionals. You might have to fact check me on this, but I don’t believe Newton has ever taken a girls’ team to the regionals in Cross Country and that would be our goal. We’re coming off meets against top teams and it’s been good for us to see that competition, and we’re ready to face those challenging in post season,” Hughes concluded.
