PIQUA — The Greenville Middle School boys and girls teams finished in the top two in the MVL Cross Country Championships on Oct. 12 at Piqua.

The boys team placed 1st at the MVL Championship Meet at Piqua with five runners finishing in the top 11 spots. CT McRill placed first overall on the two mile course. His time of 11:12 not only won the race, but set a new Greenville Middle School record. The next four in were Oliver Weaver fourth , Conner Price fifth, Ryan Rosinski seventh and Brady Hartle 11th. All five boys finished with times under twelve minutes.

Last year, four of these five boys competed at MVL as 7th graders on a team that placed second. Their goal this entire season has been to win the title as 8th graders. This was their ninth race of the season and fifth overall victory in those nine races.

“As a coach I could not be more pleased with the results for this team. They have worked hard day in and day out during practice and the results showed today, ecstatically happy for them,” head coach Dennis Eckstein said.

In the girls race, the Green Wave came away with a second place finish falling to Piqua, but edging out Troy by one point to return home as MVL Runner Up. Greenville had four girls finish in the top 11. Kinsey Fiora placed fourth in a new school record time of 12:48, she was followed by Lydia Force seventh, Callie Marker tenth and Akisha Abarquez 11th. Josilyn McMullen, a two sport athlete, was the fifth Wave runner to cross the line placing 38th while running a season best time.

“Very happy for these young ladies. We knew coming in that Piqua had four girls who would most likely separate them from the rest of the league, but second place was up for grabs between us, Troy and Tipp City. Can’t say enough about their effort. They all dug a little deeper today to finish just that one spot higher that earned them the Runner Up title,” Eckstein said. “In our pre-race huddles today we talked about the term Carpe Diem, both teams took it as their rally cry and proceeded to Seize the Day.”