Marietta runners Kasy Science (left) and Ezra Minard (right) run alongside each other at Marietta’s Broughton Invitational earlier this season in Marietta. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

The 2022 cross country season comes down to this.

The Ohio state meet will take place starting at 11 a.m. Saturday at Fortress Obetz, and several area runners will be representing their schools.

From Washington County, two teams — the Belpre boys and Fort Frye girls — will be competing. Individually, Marietta will be represented by a pair of runners in Ezra Minard and Kasy Science.

The Cadets, making their second straight state tournament appearance as a team, are led by Cadence Waller, Ava Huck, Emma Richards, Laine Spindler, Natalie Rauch and Meredith Schaad.

“It’s awesome,” said Fort Frye head coach Jason Lipot. “It’s the first time the girls time has gone back-to-back. It’s very exciting for them to get the recognition they strongly deserve.

“They like these moments. They want these moments. It’s what they run for all year is to get there. There will be a nice pep rally for them Friday at the end of school and then a sendoff Saturday morning. That’s neat that they get to experience that. I think what they’ve experienced as a team, they’re going to remember for a lifetime.”

The Cadets shocked the state when, with a roster of all freshmen, they qualified for state as a team last season. Coming into this year, they were expected to get back easily. However, Fort Frye dealt with a ton of adversity due to injury and illness. After winning the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference championship, the Cadets had to fight to get out of districts. They got a boost going into regionals when Spindler, who battled injuries throughout the year, returned and helped the team qualify for state.

“Last year was kind of a Cinderella story,” Lipot said. “What we went through this year, this was a greater accomplishment in my mind, to battle back the way they did. The grit and determination, those are things you cant teach kids. They just have it in them.

“We’ve definitely taken the hard road this season. We fought through a lot of injuries. Every runner at some point this year got hit with injuries. I have to give them credit for the fight they showed. They were determined to get healthy and get better.”

Based on regional performances, Lipot said the Cadets could finish anywhere from 13th to 19th in the team standings.

“We’re going to go to state and see what we can pull off,” Lipot said. “There are some really tremendous teams up at state.

“Individually, top 30 gets All-Ohio. We could make a surprise and get one there. There’s an enormous amount of of individual runners in that mix. All-Ohio is the most prestigious I’ve ever seen. It would be great to see one of our girls get top 30.

“We’re looking for a good performance from everybody. We hope to represent our district and region well in that race.”

The Golden Eagles are making the trip to state for the second time in three years after qualifying in 2020. Junior Blake Rodgers and senior Nick Diaz are the lone runners who remain from that squad. Running at the state level for the first time will be Carter Norman, Johnny Miller, Austin Jenkins, Mark Cebolla and Nolan Breedlove.

Belpre finished runner-up at the regional meet to earn their spot at Fortress Obetz.

“That was a really exciting day,” Belpre head coach Jen Wells said of regionals. “We knew we could place anywhere from second to sixth with the top five going (to state). We knew everyone needed to run their best race to qualify and that’s exactly what they did. It was the highest scoring team Belpre has ever had at the regional meet.”

Like the Fort Frye girls, Belpre faced the injury bug throughout this season with Rodgers missing four meets due to illness and injuries.

“He came back strong Saturday,” Wells said. “He led at the mile and finished strong to get fourth. He has a chance to be the state champion.”

Wells said Rodgers and Norman both have a chance to finish top 30 and earn all-state honors. As a team, Belpre is aiming for a top 10 finish.

“Everybody has to run their best race,” Wells said. “Last Saturday shows they’re ready and peaking at the right time. I believe they’ll turn out some good times on Saturday.

“I believe the boys have done the work necessary. I’m proud of the work they’ve done this season to get this far. We expect really great things Saturday. I hope they enjoy the experience.”

For the Tigers, Minard was regional runner-up with a time of 15 minutes, 46 seconds. That was the best placement by a local runner at the regional level this year. His teammate, Science, joined him in qualifying for state with a time of 16:30 to place 17th.

Both will seek a top 30 finish in the Division II race, which begins at 1 p.m.

The Belpre boys run first in the D3 race which starts at 11 a.m., followed by the D3 girls race at 11:45.

Jordan Holland can be reached at jholland@mariettatimes.com.