The Wellsville-Middletown cross country team had a small, but outstanding team in the 2023 season.

The Tigers had just eight runners – five boys and three girls – and all of them turned in strong performances. Seniors Bethany Slovensky and Jenelle Boeckelman, juniors Jonah Slovensky, Gage Marshall and Haskell Davis, sophomore Zackery Vogel and freshmen Aubrey Harmon and Shane Joles made up the W-M squad.

Bethany Slovensky was the Tigers’ only state qualifier. She advanced to state for the third time after placing 25th with a 25:14 at the Class 1, District 3 championship meet on Oct. 28 at South Callaway. Slovensky finished 114th with a 25:19 at the Class 1 state meet, making it the 30th year in a row a W-M runner competed at state.

Slovensky also finished with three medals. She came in seventh at the Wellsville-Middletown Invitational and 14th at the Clopton Hamburger Invitational.

Boeckelman finished with two medals, placing 12th in both the Van-Far and W-M meets. Like Slovensky, Boeckelman competed with the Tigers’ cross country team all four years. She competed at state in her freshman and sophomore seasons.

Jonah Slovensky had three medals this season, finishing 15th in the W-M meet, sixth in the Clopton Hamburger meet and fourth in the junior varsity race at the Linn Invitational. He also finished with a personal-best time of 20:04 in his 26th-place finish at the EMO meet.

Marshall picked up a seventh-place medal at Clopton and ran a personal-best 20:56.4 at the EMO meet.

Vogel returned for his second year with the Tigers. He finished with a personal-best 21:56.8 at the Brian T. Simpson Invitational in Columbia on Oct. 7.

Davis competed with the cross country team for the first time. He earned a ninth-place medal at the Clopton meet.

Harmon and Joles also were first-time runners in the high school level. Harmon ran a season-best 26:31 at the Simpson Invitational and Joles finished with a season-best 22:34 at the EMO meet.