Oak Hill High School

OHXC Golden Eagle Freshman Brantley Blair joined an elite group Saturday as he finished 7th overall in the IHSAA Manchester Super Regional earning him a spot in the IHSAA State Finals in Terre Haute next weekend. Blair became just the 2nd Golden Eagle and Grant County boy athlete all time to advance to the State Finals individually as a Freshman. He joined OHXC's own Cameron Balser who qualified for State as a Freshman with a 12th place finish in 2006. Blair's 7th pace finish is the best Freshman finish in the Super Regional / Semi State in Program history and the 3rd best Freshman finish at the Super Regional / Semi State the last 20 years only bettered by a pair of Freshman race champions in 2007 and 2022. Blair covered the course in an impressive 15:46, a time that is the best Super Regional / Semi State time for an OHXC Golden Eagle in over 30 years. With Blair's State Finals berth, OHXC & OHTF have now combined to send at least 1 athlete to the State Finals each calendar school year for the last 21 straight years dating back to 2005-2006 school year. Despite Blair's strong run the Golden Eagles as a team fell short of their ultimate goal of advancing as a team for the first time since 2005. The Golden Eagles who have been the #1 raked team in Class 2a for the entire season did not put their best effort out on the course when it was needed competing in a field that featured 4 Top 25 single class state Ranked teams including the #1 and #3 teams in the State. Overall the Golden Eagles took 10th overall in the 25 team field with 300 points bringing their successful season to an end. Despite the program's high level of success over the last 20 years it was just the 2nd time in that span that the Golden Eagles finished in the Top 10 in the Super Regional / Semi State meet. Their Top 10 Saturday was 1 of only 4 Top 10 finishes in the State for any small school (1a-2a), 1 of only 2 in class 2a. Senior Golden Eagle Wyatt Hart came 1 spot and less than 1 second away from earning a spot in the State Finals himself. Hart was 37th overall in a time of 16:39.26. The individual in 36th was the last State Qualifier in 16:39.10. Junior Grant Melton continued his last season push with a respectable 83rd overall finish. Classmates Bret Hueston, Gavin Key, and Josh Clark rounded out the Golden Eagle Top 6 in 95th, 124th, and 128th. Sophomore Graham Arrenadale completed the varsity Top 7 in 202nd. Fort Wayne Carroll the #1 ranked team in the State won the meet with a low 29 points while #3 State Ranked Homestead was 2nd with 69 points. State Ranked Fort Wayne Concordia and Yorktown were 3rd and 4th respectively while Fort Wayne Dwenger took the last spot for the State Finals in 5th. The Golden Eagle's season saw another Grant 4 and Central Indiana Conference Championship. Major Invite titles at Oak Hill, Columbus, and Indiana Wesleyan. They were Sectional Runner up to State Qualifier Yorktown and advanced the Super Regional for the 19th straight year. They were undefeated against class 1a-2a schools throughout the regular season. Blair who became the 20th OHXC Golden Eagle to qualify for the State Finals individually will compete in the State Meet on Saturday October 31st on the world famous Lavern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute.