TROY — It was a battle between MVL rivals Troy and Piqua for the boys title at the Lostcreek Invitational,000-meter race to kick off the cross country season Monday.

The Piqua boys won with 69 points and Troy was second with 73.

“The boys looked good,” Piqua coach Ryan King said. “We had a couple of our younger guys run pretty aggressively and exceed our early expectations. I was happy with their performance for our first meet.

“Saturday at the Bob Schul Invitational will be a step up to our regular distance and it becomes a different kind of race. We are anxious to see how they handle that since they are still a relatively young team.”

Noah Burgh led the Indians to victory and was the top County finished with a third-place finish in 10:10.

“It is a good race to start the season,” Burgh said. “I have a scale before every race. I have an absolute best, median and absolute worst. I was pretty close to my median time on the scale. I was just happy to be on the scale somewhere.”

Burgh has high hopes for the season.

“I have a goal of 15:30 or less for a 5k (the standard cross country distance),” Burgh said. “I think I can do it. If I could, that would be amazing.”

Rounding out Piqua’s top seven were Braden Holtvogt, 6, 10:23.2; Evan Clark, 16, 10:53.5; Ty Pettus, 20, 11:04.4; Brycen Angle, 26, 11:16.4; Jackson Lyman, 32, 11:23.3 and AJ Burroughs, 11:33.9.

Troy’s top seven included Luke Plaiser, 7, 10:28.3; Noah Zink, 8, 10:30.7; Kyle McCord, 10, 10:32.8; Chet Snyder, 23, 11:07.4; Ryan McChesney, 28, 11:20.7; Ethan White, 31, 11:22.5 and Ryan Penny, 38, 11:39.6.

Milton-Union finished sixth.

The Bulldogs top seven included Ty Furlong, 11, 10:39.2; John Ritchey, 21, 11:04.6; Jacob Grube, 29, 11:21.3; Andrew Oaks, 47, 11:47.1; Chase Parsons, 52, 11:56.9; Liam Hartley, 62, 12:25.6 and Tyler Shoemaker, 66, 12:34.4.

Newton finished ninth.

Indian runners include Liam Woods, 13, 10:41.7; Seth Coker, 27, 11:16.5; Dylan Bauer, 51, 11:53.6; Trevor Jess, 65, 12:33.4; and Jaden Woodward-Roeth, 109, 14:17.4.

Troy Christian runners included Landon Patel, 22, 11:06.5; Noah Oiler, 112, 14:31.6 and Jason Schaffer, 124, 16:13.5.

GIRLS

The Troy girls cross country team had no trouble shaking off the rust and cruising to victory.

Troy won with 27 points, putting five runners in the top 10.

“We call this race the Rust-Buster,” Troy coach Kevin Alexaander said. “It is a good race to start the season and prepare us for running an even longer distance (5,000 meters) in our next race. All the girls handled it really well.”

Senior Millie Peltier led much of the race, before finishing second behind Tessa Fine of Greenville in 12:18.0.

“It is (a good way to start the season),” Peltier said. “I was happy with my race. I just wish I hadn’t died at the end of the race.”

Alexander said it will be a learning experience for Peltier.

“Millie (Peltier) went out really fast tonight,” he said. “She will learn from that. If you can learn from a race and still finish second, that is a pretty good race.”

The rest of the Trojans in the top seven were Hallie Frigge, 4, 13:11.9; Lily Zimmerman, 5, 13:13.1; Isabel Westerheide, 6, 13:15.8; Fiona Battle, 10, 13:28.6; Ashley Kyle, 11, 13:39.3 and Brooke Davis, 12, 13:39.6.

Milton-Union finished third.

The Bulldog runners included Savanna Smith, 3, 13:03.1; Kami Schatz, 9, 13:28.3; Ty Parsons, 18, 14:05.3; Jessa Lightner, 27,14:39.2; Alaina Mannin, 40, 15:29.2 and Clara Gedeon, 48, 15:49.6.

Piqua finished fifth.

The Indians top seven included Isabella Murray, 17, 14:02.3; Ashlyn Gearhardt, 20, 14:14.9; Lucy Weiss, 22, 14:24.4; Lienne Casey, 28, 14:49.1; Reagan Howard, 64, 16:41.3; Addison Ford, 65, 16:42.4 and Emery Kuhlman, 68, 16:52.05.

Troy Christian finished eighth.

The Eagle runners included Mackenzie Rougier, 49, 15:58.3; Lila Echemann, 52, 16:09.7; Gwen Harris, 55, 16:17.3; Annaliese Erdahl, 72, 17:09.9; Norah Rocke, 82, 18:03.3 and Anna Lee, 94, 22:19.9.

Newton’s Gentri Deaton was 79th in 17:50.5.

You can reach Sports Editor Rob Kiser at [email protected]