As it has been for the last several years, the Turpin cross country teams travelled to Voice of America Park for the Lakota East Fall Classic on August 30, 2008.  Looking back on the previous meet in Fairfield, both the guys and the girl's teams shared a goal: improvement.  With the temperature steadily rising throughout the meet, and the familiar, although rough, course ahead of them, the Spartan teams were both ready to better themselves in the challenging race.

With new ownership of the race, the format of the meet was changed around a bit.  Therefore the day opened up with the female freshmen/sophomore race.  Leading the newer part of the team through the race were sophomores Cassie Bacon and Lauren Keene, who finished with respective times of 21:42 and 22:08.  Fellow sophomores Maki Fujimoto and Liz Martin closed in behind Keene with close times of 22:15 and 22:16.  Freshman Michelle Robinson followed up right behind sophomores Caroline Muth and Hannah Plattner, all with respective times of 22:36, 22:30, and 22:32.  All of the high school underclasswomen continued to carry on the Spartan tradition of excellence in the first race of the Classic.

After the female underclassmen race came the male underclassmen race.  Sophomore Joe Murray, after having ran his first varsity race the week before with an 18:31, led the younger guys with a 12th place finish and a consistent time of 18:29.  Freshman Paul Rodriguez ran his first official cross country 5k in 19:11.  Sophomore soccer player Jason Miller ran a good race in 19:33, while sophomores Adam Galloway and Scott Wenderoth finished close together in 20:01 and 20:02, respectively.  Many personal bests were set in this race by the sophomores, while the freshmen got their first taste of what high school racing means.

The next race to come was the Female 11th and 12th grade races.  Senior Kaitlin Price, following up on a fifth place finish at the very competitive Fairfield meet, clocked in at 19:46 and came in a great 3rd place finish.  Junior Megan Plichta set a new personal record, coming in 6th overall and in 20:01.  Senior Lauren Young came in next for Turpin with a 20:42 and in 10th place.  Junior Alexia Yun continued to improve herself with a solid 23:00, while Junior Lindsey Evans and Senior Gretchen Muth rounded up the Turpin seniority with respective times of 23:31 and 23:35.  With the conclusion of the female races, the Turpin ladies had proven that they were a strong force to be reckoned with.

The last race of the Lakota Classic was the 11th and 12th grade guys.  Junior Nicholas El-Khoury continued to lead the team, running a strong 16:34 race and placing in 2nd overall.  Junior Dave Rodriguez, returning from two injuries and with only two weeks of prior running, ran an impressive 17:17 while Senior Drew DiSabatino followed closely with a great time of 17:19.  Junior Alex Polivka returned to run his first offical cross country race in nearly two years, finishing with a 18:07.  Newcomer Jon Risher continued to prove himself by running a good time of 18:22 and improving more than a minute from the week before.  Senior Zach Smith pushed to a steady 18:58, while fellow seniors Jack Reeder and Derek Tucker followed with respective times of 19:18 and 19:48.  Junior Trace Zemites ran a 20:47 while Senior Cody Vanderpool continued to improve with a 20:58.  New junior runner Sam Auvil rounded out the Turpin team with an improving time of 21:51.

The Lakota Fall Classic helped the Spartan runners improve their times and set new goals for themselves, as it does every year.  Turpin's cross country teams look forward to travelling to Mason on Saturday, September 6th to race in the Mason Invitational, which always has good competition.  Thanks to all the fans who came out to cheer on the Turpin athletes, and congratulations to all the Turpin runners!

In what has become a pattern the last few years, the Spartan Cross Country teams kicked off their season on a new course, the fourth new opening race in as many years. Expectations for the season were high with the boys entering the season ranked fourth in Cincinnati and tenth in Ohio, and the girls ranked sixth and eighth, respectively, in preseason polling. Racing at the hot and fairly hilly Brian Plasma Invitational, both the boys and girls hoped to send a signal that they are still major contenders for another state meet qualification.

With five of the seven girls that competed at the state meet running on Saturday, the girls were in good position to finish well in the standings. Running the first 5k race of the morning, the girls were not quite sure what to expect. Senior Kaitlin Price led the Spartan girls finishing fifth in 19:53, nearly 20 seconds than her first race last season. Lauren Young and Megan Plichta were the next finishers placing fourteenth and fifteenth, respectively. Jillian Jaworek finished twenty-seventh in 21:34 and Lauren Keen rounded out the Turpin scorers finishing thirty-fourth in 22:15. Scoring 95 points, the Turpin girls placed third behind a strong Mason team, and just one point behind Sycamore.

The Turpin boy’s varsity team was marked with inexperience on Saturday. Two runners, Jon Risher and Alex Williams were competing in their first cross country race of their career, while two more, Joe Murray and Jack Reeder were running their first varsity race. Although times averaged 30-40 seconds slow for nearly all Turpin runners, the one exception came from junior standout Nicholas El-Khoury. El-Khoury ran just six seconds off PR time finishing sixth in 16:21. Seniors Drew DiSabatino and Zach Smith were the second and third Spartan finishers running respective times of 17:31 and 18:19. Sophomore Joe Murray and senior Jack Reeder were the final scoring Spartans, finishing in 18:31 and 19:11. With 183 points, the Turpin guys finished in eighth place.

Next Saturday, Turpin will be running at the very familiar Voice of America Park. Rejoining the Turpin boys team will be two of its varsity runners. Dave Rodriguez has been rehabbing from an ankle injury, while Alex Polivka was unable to compete on Saturday.