Ashly Erba from Team Indiana running to a new meet record in 2012 - Photo by Jimmy Aungst / MileSplit Ohio
Tomorrow the 36th annual Mid-East Championship is set to take place at Indian Riffle Park in Kettering, Ohio. This meet traditionally consists of some of the best seniors from the states of Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois. Illinois, however, did not field a team last year.
Indiana holds a rich history at this championship series with 9 boys team wins, 11 individual boys wins, 10 girls team wins, and 7 girls individual wins for the state. Indiana also has the individual meet records for the boys and girls. Mike Fout, former Florida State University and LaPorte runner, ran a 14:59 back in 2007 while Warsaw Community legend Ashley Erba ran a 17:21 in 2012. The 2015 girls team also holds the lowest team score ever recorded with a near perfect 16 points. 
The course is challenging with several elements working to test each runner's grit. It features tight turns, a couple woods loops, a steep hill the runners will climb twice, as well as a creek crossing that can be tough especially in muddy conditions.
Ty Garrett taking the tape at the 2022 Mid-East Championships - Photo by Shawn Conlon / MileSplit Ohio
Last year Indiana's Ty Garrett from Center Grove took the win in the boys race with a 15:42 with Kyle Clark from Bloomington North being Indiana's only other top 10 performance with a third place finish in 15:49. The boys would end up in third place with 50 points. For the girls Lillian Zelasko from New Prairie and Julia Kiesler from Columbus North would finish 3rd and 4th with times of 18:23 and 18:30 respectively to lead Indiana to a second place team finish with 43 points.
This year will feature 12 boys that all finished top 42 at state this year. This girls roster is even more impressive as every runner racing placed on the podium in a top 25 position with the 12th girl selected placing 22nd. Highlighting the boys roster this year is Ryan Rheam from Bloomington South. Ryan is a United States Military Academy commit and had the top finish at state out of any other All-Star with a 11th place effort. Lexi Panning from Fort Wayne Concordia has the top entry for the girls All-Star team as she placed 7th just ahead of Floyd Central's Kaitlyn Stewart by one second at state. Lexi is a Bowling Green State University commit and recently was the team's top performer for Indiana's best team at NXR Midwest.
See the full roster for both the boys and girls teams as well as some statistics from each individual here.
MileSplit will have live results as well as coverage from the meet available on social media and on our website afterward.
Related Links
Check out our coverage from last year's Mid-East Championship
Taking a Look at this year's XC Indiana All-Stars
Live Results
