Fall Sports Roundup

Fall Sports Roundup

By Daniel Kidd

Talawanda Girl’s Cross Country Regional Champions, Photo Credit:  Talawanda Athletics

The fall sports season at Talawanda is coming to a close, and this season has been incredible. Our teams have won four separate SWOC Championships in three sports. The girl’s tennis team won the SWOC Championship on September 26, with a 12-6 record. For the 8th year in a row, the girls’ cross-country team won the championship 28 points ahead of the runner-up Harrison. The boys’ team has also won their championship, staying 13 points ahead. This volleyball season has also been amazing, with the team winning the SWOC tournament with an overall record of 19-3. 

The football season started off a bit slow, with losses in the first four games, but then the team turned it around and crushed the competition. The first win was against Dayton Caroll’s Patriots, 35-12, against the previously undefeated team. The team then won two more games, beating Shroder 42-0 and Northwest 34-24, before losing to Harrison on October 11. 

The volleyball team has done great, with the girls losing only three games throughout the season. They won their first two games, and nearly won the third, but were slightly outmatched by Ross. Ross got ahead in the fifth and final set and won 15-5. After their first season loss, the girls went on to win seven games in a row, before losing all three sets to Badin. They then had another winning streak of nine games this time, before being defeated by Oak Hills 3-1. 

The boys’ and girls’ cross country teams both won their SWOC Championships, with the boys reclaiming the crown from Harrison, who won it in 2023. This is the fourth time the boys have won in the past five years. The girls’ team, however, has won the championship for the eighth year in a row,  28 points ahead of the runner-up Harrison. The first-place runner, Adriana Luking, who got a time of 19:04.2, arrived over a minute and a half before the first Harrison runner, who came in fifth. We asked senior runner Addie Danner about her favorite event of the season. “Saturday night lights were probably the highlight of the season. The course was incredibly muddy so we threw times out the window and just had fun in the mud,” Danner said. 

The boys also did great, with the top 3 runners from Talawanda coming in within 11 seconds of each other. In first place, Bryson Fears got a time of 16:05.7, followed by Garrison Franks 0.4 seconds later, and Fletcher Rodbro with a time of 16:16.0. The girls have just recently won the regional championship, finishing 3 points ahead of Mason. Lucia Rodbro placed second, with a time of 18:18.08.

The boys’ soccer team always played great defense but was often outmatched by the other team. Junior defender Nihal Menezes said, “The highlight of our season was our ability to maintain a good defensive posture and aggressiveness.” The team finished the season with a record of 4-10-3 (4 wins, 10 losses, 3 ties).

The girls’ soccer team did pretty well this season, they won 7 games, against Middletown Madison, Valley View, Mt. Healthy, Colerain, and Northwest. The closest game was against Edgewood, where they tied 0-0. The team finished off the season with a record of 7-8-1.