The Indians will compete as a team in the state meet Saturday at Scioto Downs. Coach John Bender is hoping for better course conditions than what the girls endured at the regional and district meets.

"We'd like to have a dry course so the girls can have an opportunity to run personal records," he said. "The last several weeks have been so wet and cold and muddy that we've not had individual records, but you're going to have that in cross country. We're hoping Saturday will be a little different."

The Indians advanced to the state meet because of a good performance at the regional last Saturday at Pickerington North. Canal Winchester claimed the final team qualifying spot by finishing fourth (131 points), behind Sylvania Northview (61), Dublin Scioto (71) and Toledo Notre Dame Academy (111). Dublin Coffman (154) finished fifth.

Emily Pifer led the Indians and finished fourth in 20 minutes, 7 seconds, behind champion Meredith Wagner (19:22) of Sylvania Northview. Also competing for the Indians were Penny Boswell (13th, 20:40), Kayla Scott (18th, 21:00), Ali Stauffer (52nd, 21:52), Taryn Meidl (62nd, 22:17), Jessy Wheeler (89th, 23:04) and Christy Wildermuth (94th, 23:19).

"The girls did really great," Bender said. "They had the best meet of the year at the regional. It was one of our team goals this season, to get to state, so it means a great deal to us. We knew Scioto, Sylvania and Notre Dame Academy were really good, they'd been in the top 10 all year in the state. We knew Coffman was good as well, and it turned out they were fifth behind us, so we felt good about that."

Immediately after the race, it was unknown where the Indians finished. Pifer and Boswell were awaiting the official results and upon receiving them, sprinted across the football field to let the rest of the team know they had qualified for state.

"Emily and Penny ran across the field to tell us the results, and when we found out, it was one of the highlights for our cross country team," Bender said. "When we found out we had qualified, it was a very special moment for us."

The boys team was represented at regional by Jarrod Genther and Micah Cobb. Neither advanced to state, but both had solid races. Genther finished 36th in 18:22 and Cobb was 66th in 18:49 behind champion Daniel Garleb (17:04) of Pickerington North.

"Both of the guys had a great meet. They had their best runs of the year," Bender said.

•The season came to an end Oct. 22 for the boys soccer team. The Indians were upset by Watterson 1-0 in the second round of the Division II district tournament.

Though Canal Winchester wasn't able to find postseason success, the Indians did have a solid regular season, highlighted by a share of the MSL-Buckeye Division title.

Canal Winchester finished 8-6-2 overall and were 5-1 in the league to share the title with Teays Valley, marking the second consecutive season of winning at least a share of the league title.

"I thought we did well this season, especially sharing a league title with Teays Valley," coach Erik Feinstein said. "We would've liked to have gone further in the tournament. Nobody ever wants to end their season, but only one team will win their last game."

Canal Winchester will lose a large senior class that includes Cole Chatfield, Cameron Deeds, Mason Link, Cory Rinehart, Sean Roberts, Adam Tackett and David Weis.

The Indians also lose David Wrywal, an exchange student from Germany.

Players expected to return include Brendan Bugler (defender), Dylan Colley (defender), Stephen Evers (midfielder), Cory Myers (midfielder), Scott McAnaul (forward), Cole Porterfield (defender), Pat Steinbrink (midfielder), Pat Ternasky (midfielder) and Dillon Theisen (goalkeeper).

"We had several juniors this year who contributed who will need to step up next year," Feinstein said. "Our goals will be the exact same next year. We want to make a run in the district tournament and we want to win the league. We had a very strong junior varsity team this year, so we'll expect some of those guys to come up and contribute."

•The girls volleyball team's season ended last Saturday when the second-seeded Indians lost to third-seeded Big Walnut 25-16, 15-25, 25-19, 25-15 in a Division II district championship match at Grace Brethren Church.

It was the second consecutive season the Indians lost to Big Walnut in a district championship match, and the third year in a row Canal Winchester saw its season end in a district final. Big Walnut won its ninth district championship in the last 10 years.

"There were stretches, a couple of rotations, where we were just letting (Big Walnut score) point, point, point," coach Colleen Ross said. "But our other rotations were picking it up and playing well. If we could've minimized those spurts of four, five points from them, it's an even ballgame. But, obviously, we didn't.

"I'm not sure, without looking at (the videotape), why we struggled. I don't know if it was them or us."

Canal Winchester advanced to the district championship match with a 25-15, 20-25, 7-25, 25-19, 15-11 win over sixth-seeded Hamilton Township in a district semifinal Oct. 27.

"I think the girls did a fantastic job in this game," Ross said of the win over the Rangers. "I thought everybody came together and did what they had to do to win. (After we went down 2-1) I told the girls we had to stay positive. This was the third time we had played them and I told the girls they had to be ready for anything."