Dublin Scioto High School girls cross country coach Matt Suttle is certain his team will win its first district championship Saturday if his athletes merely run a solid race.

The Irish will compete in the Division I district 2 meet at Watkins Memorial.

The top-seeded Irish haven't lost to another central Ohio team and have compiled a 130-4 record. The only other high seeds which will compete in district 2 are Coffman (sixth), Olentangy Liberty (ninth) and Pickerington North (10th).

Suttle has advised his athletes to concentrate on taking care of themselves, not their opponents.

Scioto finished second (58 points) in the Division I district 2 meet at Watkins Memorial behind Hilliard Davidson (39) a year ago.

The top four teams and those individuals not on qualifying teams who finish in the top 16 will advance to the regional Oct. 31 at Pickerington North.

"Everyone ran away from us at district, and the only strong team that we're going to see is Dublin Coffman, so we should be able to win if we're healthy," Suttle said.

"Our top four just need to pack up and run the way they've run all season. Our fifth runner needs to finish as high as possible, and we'll do fine. The big thing is avoiding the flu that's been going around and doing the right things to stay healthy. I've joked with the girls that I want them to be home-schooled through the rest of the season, so they can avoid getting sick."

The Irish scored 15 points to easily win the OCC-Cardinal Division meet last Saturday at Westerville North ahead of Olentangy Liberty (95), Jerome (106), Olentangy (107), Westerville Central (113), Marysville (158), Westerville South (176) and Westerville North (202) for their fifth OCC title of the past six seasons.

Kimberly Wedinger (19 minutes, 56,1 seconds), Minori Minagawa (20:01.2), Sakiko Minagawa (20:01.5), Keelin Gorman (20:01.9), Katie Papesh (20:02.2) and Lindsay Keeran (20:06.4) finished first through sixth. Shelley Diewald (20:30.5) was 10th.

"Obviously, winning our league was a goal, but it wasn't a big focus because it's something we counted on happening," Suttle said. "We didn't taper for the meet. We just used it as a workout."

•Kaitlyn Willette (eighth, 20:13.5), Aleeya Ossoli (11th, 20:32.3), Audrey White (22nd, 21:25.7), Ashley Smith (34th, 21:56.3) and Carly Bauer (39th, 22:09.8) scored for the Jerome girls team in the OCC-Cardinal girls meet.

"I'm excited because my two freshmen were our top runners," coach Kenny Schuster said. "I think we ran about as well as could be expected."

The 12th-seeded Celtics will compete in the district 1 meet. Other seeded squads who will compete in that event are Upper Arlington (second), Davidson (third) and Thomas Worthington (eighth).

The Celtics placed third (107) in the district 2 meet behind Hilliard Davidson (39) and Scioto (58) last season to qualify to regional for a third-consecutive year.

"UA is really tough, but I think we're in a district where we will fight it out for those second through fourth spots, as long as we run well," Schuster said. "Rebecca Rings is back from a stress fracture (in her shin) and she's running well enough that I think she's going to help us at the district and regional meets."

•The Coffman boys team won (42) the OCC-Central Division meet last Saturday ahead of Upper Arlington (60), Hilliard Darby (67), Davidson (74), Thomas (105) and Worthington Kilbourne (157) for its first league title since 1999.

John Kieffer finished second (16:10.8) behind Darby's Jay McKenna (16:09.3).

Adam Davidson (fifth, 16:39.9), Robbie Daulton (sixth, 16:41.9), Mark Ruf (10th, 17:03.4) and Kyle Wellmerling (19th, 17:36.5) rounded out the Shamrocks' scoring.

"It feels great to win our league again because 10 years is a long drought," coach Chad Biegler said. "We've usually been in there with Hilliard Davidson, who was a super-dominant team for so long, along with Darby, who had a nice run, too. We did this without our No. 2 runner, Grant Onken, who didn't run because he had a sore back. (Ruf) did a nice job coming back and passing quite a few runners over the last mile to help us win comfortably."

The second-seeded Shamrocks will compete in the district 2 meet Saturday at Watkins Memorial.

The top five teams and those individuals not on qualifying teams who finish in the top 20 in the boys district 1 and 2 meets will qualify to the regional Oct. 31 at Pickerington North.

Upper Arlington (sixth) is the second-highest seed in the district 2 meet.

Coffman, which placed second (56) in the Division I district 3 meet behind Davidson (31) last year, hasn't won a district title since 1998.

"I believe we'll be fine if we have our top five guys available to run," Biegler said.

At a glance

Below are the recent results and coming schedules for the Coffman, Jerome and Scioto boys and girls cross country teams:

COFFMAN

• Last Saturday -- Boys: Finished first (42) in OCC-Central Division meet ahead of Upper Arlington (60), Darby (67), Davidson (74), Worthington (105) and Kilbourne (157); Girls: Finished fourth (88) in OCC-Central meet behind Upper Arlington (40), Davidson (64) and Thomas (64), and ahead of Darby (112) and Kilbourne (154). Mechelle DeNoble (10th, 20:27.9), Clarissa Bons (12th, 20:35.4), Kelly Greenzalis (15th, 20:47.4), Rohita Javangula (23rd, 21:20.4) and Brooke Sciullo (28th, 21:31.1) scored.
• Saturday -- Division I district 2 meet at Watkins Memorial

JEROME

• Last Saturday -- Boys: Finished fifth (108) in OCC-Cardinal Division meet behind Westerville North (47), Liberty (63), Westerville Central (65) and Westerville South (81), and ahead of Olentangy (164), Scioto (183) and Marysville (194). Nick Schneider (second, 15:58.1), Jack Crawford (20th, 17:40.1), Evan Campbell (24th, 17:52.2), Spencer King (30th, 18:02.5) and Ben Crawford (32nd, 18:08.5) scored; Girls: Finished third (106) behind Scioto (15) and Olentangy Liberty (95), and ahead of Olentangy (107), Westerville Central (113), Marysville (158), Westerville South (176) and Westerville North (202)

• Saturday -- Division I district 1 meet at Watkins Memorial

SCIOTO

• Last Saturday -- Boys: Finished seventh (183) in OCC-Cardinal Division meet behind Westerville North (47), Liberty (63), Westerville Central (65), Westerville South (81), Jerome (108) and Olentangy (164), and ahead of Marysville (194). Patrick Moore (eighth, 17:00.8), Taylor Talentino (33rd, 18:10.0), Tyler Bruney (45th, 18:43.6), Zach Gerrasch (55th, 19:01.4) and Connor Howard (65th, 19:49.7) scored; Girls: Finished first (15) in OCC-Cardinal meet ahead of Liberty (95), Jerome (106), Olentangy (107), Westerville Central (113), Marysville (158), Westerville South (176) and Westerville North (202)
• Saturday -- Boys: Division I district 1 meet at Watkins Memorial; Girls: Division I district 2 meet at Watkins Memorial