Faust, Eyre earn top SHAC Boys XC awards

Seven Hills, Oakwood claim team titles at conference meet

Cincinnati.com | October 21, 2022

Seven Hills clinched its second consecutive Southwest Ohio Scholastic Athletic Conference championship, while Oakwood repeated as the American Division champion during the conference cross country meet Saturday at Voice of America Park.

St. Xavier’s Jack Faust captured the individual championship in the Gold Race with a time of 15:52.6, while Wyoming’s Griffin Eyre won the Silver Race title in 16:27.4.

Seven Hills’ five scoring runners placed among the top 15 overall to edge McNicholas, 48-51.

The Stingers’ top finisher was sophomore Luke Gigandet in sixth (16:34.5), followed by junior Henry Delong (seventh, 16:35.2) and junior Daniel Meis (eighth, 16:35.5).

Oakwood won the American Division team title with 31 points, ahead of runner-up Fenwick (50).

The Lumberjacks were led by junior Jack Fees, who placed fifth overall (16:33.4).

Seven Hills’ team title marked the sixth conference title in school history.

“It’s really nice to win a team championship,” Seven Hills coach Dean Berger said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys. We’ve got nine freshmen and sophomores on our team, and it was nice to see them come together today.”

Faust is the second consecutive St. Xavier runner to win the conference title after Peter Opatz won last year.

“I knew coming into it that I wanted to do well,” Faust said. “But I didn’t really expect to win. It’s a great feeling.”

Eyre was pleased with his performance, especially after dealing with a stress fracture in his foot earlier this season.

“The stress fracture was pretty bad,” Eyre said. “It was probably one of the hardest things I’ve had to go through as an athlete. But I’m just glad I’ve been able to come back and run as well as I have.”