All three county cross country teams made the trip to Allen County on Saturday as Spencerville hosted the Bearcat Invitational.
In the girls red division portion of the meet, the Lady Archers of Antwerp led local squads with a sixth-place finish while Wayne Trace placed seventh as a team.
The Lady Raiders’ Kiara Bahena was the first finisher for Paulding County, recording a time of 21:06.8 in crossing the line to take fifth place.
Faith Meraz placed 47th in 25:14.4 for the red, white and blue followed by Elizabeth Mohr (52nd, 26:06.7), Libby Meraz (57th, 26:41.4), Anna Meraz (58th, 27:13.5) and Brenna Thomas (65th, 29:05.0).
Kate Farr was the first Antwerp runner, placing 28th in 23:54.9, with Aeriel Snyder taking 30th in 24:10.0. Emma Saul (39th, 24:34.8), Isabelle Graham (44th, 25:09.8), Emerson Litzenberg (49th, 25:40.7) and Makenna Smith (50th, 25:48.3).
The Panther boys ran in the black division race where the maroon and white posted a 12th place team finish.
Cully Thompson led the way for Paulding by taking 60th in 21:08.5 while Caleb Thompson finished 66th in 21:57.1. The rest of the Panther lineup included Eli Jones (74th, 22:28), Wesley Ludwig (94th, 24:19), Garret McClure (96th, 24:29), Jeremiah Koenig (97th, 24:37), Greyson Harder (99th, 25:07), Josh Lemieux (102nd, 25:32) and Alex Tresler (115th, 32:08).
The Lady Panthers had a pair of individuals take place with Claire Miller posting a 65th place finish in 25:18.3 and Cassie Weller finished 81st in 27:28.0.
In the varsity boys red division race, both Antwerp and Wayne Trace had four runners cross the finish line.
Avin Johnson paced the Archers, finishing 21st in 19:05.3, with Kamren Johnson taking 26th in 19:13.9. Alex Zijlstra (40th, 20:07.5) and Zach Lockhart (82nd, 22:35.5) were the other two blue and white runners.
Wayne Trace was led by Maddox Treece, who posted a time of 19:45.7 to finish in 34th place. Other Raider runners were Austin Lyons (68th, 21:50.9), Trent Thornell (94th, 24:46.0) and Noah Schisler (104th, 27:57.1).
Antwerp’s junior high girls team took fifth place as Leigha Doster (14:17.5) and Gabriella Snyder (14:18.2) took 21st and 22nd place, respectively. Other blue and white runners were Emily Laker (49th, 15:08.8), Jennifer Lawhorn (60th, 15:35.9), Taylor Steibling (68th, 15:54.9), Maclaren Ehrhart (90th, 17:07.5) and Emory Ehrhart (103rd, 17:45.4).
Ingrid Bautista was Wayne Trace’s lone runner, posting a time of 17:58.4 to finish 106th overall.
Seth Rosswurm led the Raider junior high boys squad, recording a time of 12:49.2 in seizing 30th place overall. Riley Manz (48th, 13:25.7), Colton Kimmel (58th, 13:42.7), Eli Treece (59th, 13:44.6), Cole Manz (126th, 15:33.5) and Konnor Wannemacher (172nd, 18:25.6) rounded out the Raider runners.
Antwerp’s Grayson Kelso was the only blue and white finisher, recording a time of 21:32.9 in taking 182nd place.
