Fort Frye’s cross country team celebrates with the regional championship trophy Saturday in Pickerington. (Courtesy photo)

PICKERINGTON — Make it a perfect 4 for 4.

The Fort Frye girls cross country team qualified for the state meet for the fourth year in a row Saturday at the Division III, Region 11 championships at Pickerington North. The Cadets placed first overall with a team score of 80 to win their second regional title in the last four years.

“First off I would like to say these girls 100% deserve this today,” said Fort Frye head coach Jason Lipot. “They all prepared and executed the strategy to perfection. The entire team from top to bottom held their own today and it showed. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, and it was going to close, so to see them run away with this in the manner they did is quite impressive. They have been on roll now. I like how we’re heading into state.”

Cadence Waller placed sixth overall with a time of 19 minutes, 23 seconds. Camryn Huck followed in 14th with a time of 19:50.

Ava Huck (23rd; 20:19) and Laine Spindler (25th; 20:21) also cracked the top 25. Natalie Rauch placed 53rd at 21:37. Lydia Huck (75th; 22:27.32) and Sophia Huck (76th; 22:27.83) crossed the finish line together.

Waterford’s Gavin Offenberger competes in the regional cross country championships Saturday in Pickerington. (Courtesy photo)

“Cadence and Camryn are individual state qualifiers. Cadence, Camryn, Ava, and Laine all pushed it at the top,” Lipot said. “When you have four in the top 25 overall in a race like this, your odds are pretty good as a team. Our fifth runner Natalie really held her part by holding off her competitors and scored very well today. Lydia PR’d by 40 seconds today and Sophia finished right behind her. They had great times today.”

The Cadets last won the regional in 2021 when this senior group were freshmen.

“These girls have been working so hard for this since 2021,” Lipot said. “It means a lot to them. It sort of bookends their careers a bit. This was one of their top goals for the season. One step at a time. Now the focus is on state, but they really have been training all year for this race. We knew if we won regionals, we’d be right where we want to be this late in the season.”

Several other area runners advanced to the state meet, starting with the Shenandoah boys.

The Zeps placed fourth in D3, led by Jarrett Wentworth’s eighth-place finish (16:19). Chuck Estadt (30th; 17:12), Emmitt Slevin (58th; 17:57), Peyton Forshey (59th; 17:58) and Noah McElroy (88th; 18:24) rounded out Shenandoah’s score.

Gavin Offenberger placed 10th in the D3 boys race with a time of 16:24 to become Waterford’s first state qualifier since 2000. His teammates Troy Gibson and Alejandro Fuentez finished close together. Gibson placed 39th with a time of 17:26.07, while Fuentes was sixth-tenths of a second behind him. Waterford placed eighth as a team.

Eastern’s Connor Nolan (fourth; 15:48) and Federal Hocking’s Darius Pierce (14th; 16:42) also are state bound.

In Division II, the Warren boys missed out on qualifying for state as a team by one spot. The Warriors finished seventh with 187 points. The top six teams advanced, with Fairless placing sixth with 162 points.

However, Warren will be represented at state by one boy and one girl.

Bryce Rettenberger placed fourth overall with a time of 15:52 to earn his spot on the boys side, while Ashlee Pate (eighth; 19:17) advanced on the girls side.

Morgan’s Clark Smith placed 22nd with a time of 16:25 to punch his ticket to the state meet, which takes place Saturday at Fortress Obetz.