By: Alexis LeMieux

As winter approaches, the fall sports are beginning to wrap up to make room for winter sports. Each fall sport ended with great accomplishments with games, meets, matches, and performances.

Senior Lena Underbakke has been running cross country since her freshman year. Her team was able to end up as the league runners up, district champions, while also finishing 8th place in the regionals that took place on October 25.

“The best decision I have made in high school was to run cross country,” Underbakke said. “It has given me my best friends, a love for running and staying active, and a true place in this community. I wouldn’t be who I am today without it.”

Senior Venus Aggarwal is a member of the tennis team. She and her team came together to finish the season off well, finishing fourth in the most recent MVTCA coaches’ poll while being the SWBL runner up at the same time.

“My season went really well! We finished with a record of 14–5, which I’m really proud of,” Aggarwal said. “Our team worked hard all year, and it was a great way to end my senior season.”

Through Underbakke’s efforts since freshman year, she was able to end her own season strong, much like Aggarwal. “I had a great season. I set my PR my freshman year at 23:12. My sophomore and junior years my times were minutes slower,” Underbakke said. “Then this year my season best I was able to get a 23:18, so it was very cool being able to end on such a positive note.”

Both Aggarwal and Underbakke advise that staying involved in your sport while putting the work is beneficial.

“If you are considering joining cross country, do it. If you put the work in, it will be the most rewarding experience of your life,” Underbakke said. “The girls create such a welcoming environment and want you to see you reach your goals, and help push you to reach them. We have fun little silly traditions that keep the sport fun. It doesn’t require a background in running, just your best effort.”

“My biggest advice would be to reach out to our head coach. He’s a great coach who truly loves teaching the game and even offers free private lessons to players,” Aggarwal said. “I’d also recommend going to off-season practices—they really help you improve and get comfortable before the season starts.”

The girls’ tennis team won four of their matches in the league, only losing one.

In addition to tennis and girls country, the other sports had finished off well also.

In their league, the boys’ soccer team finished off with a win-loss-tie (W-L-T) count of 8-1-1, and an overall W-L-T count of 14-3-2. In their first round of the tournament on October 18, they won against Xenia 8-0. In round two on October 21, they fell to Chaminade Julienne (CJ) 4-2.

The girls soccer team had a W-L-T ratio of 9-1-0 in their league and advanced to play in tournaments. In round one of their tournament on October 16, they beat Tecumseh 8-0. During round two on October 20, they lost to Carroll 2-0.

The football team had three wins and one loss in their league. During the playoffs, which took place on Halloween, they lost to Alter 35-7.

The girls volleyball won with a ratio of 7-3 in their league. The first round of their tournament took place on October 15, where they won 3-0 against Tecumseh. Advancing to the semifinals, they beat CJ 3-1. Moving on to round three, they were titled district runner ups, losing to Ross 3-0.

In addition to what was already mentioned regarding the girls cross country team, two of their runners, Morgan Dalton and Elsie Bruckart, qualified for OHSAA State Championships that took place on November 1 in Columbus. Both Dalton and Bruckart finished in the top half of their race.

Boys cross country won the SWBL league championships on October 11. They were named district champions and finished 4th in the regional championships on October 25. All of the boys qualified for OHSAA State Championships on November 1. Bellbrook hadn’t sent a full team to the state meet since 1976. They ended up finishing 16th as a team.

In girls golf, they finished with an overall W-L score of 8-2. The team came second in the sectional, additionally winning the SWBL tournament.

The boys, on the other hand, went with an overall W-L ratio of 3-0. The boys finished 5th as a team at the District meet, finishing first in the sectional, winning the SWBL tournament, ending off as Southwest Division Champions.

Following up competition is cheer, where both traditional and game day won 1st place in their invitational.

Finishing off is the marching band, where they started off in their participation in the invitational. They advanced to Bands of America Super Regional on October 24, where they ended up 14th/38th in their class and 52nd/124th overall.

This leads to the band’s participation in the Centerville invitational on November 1, where they were awarded best auxiliary, best general effect, best visual, best percussion, best music, and finally, won 1st place in class AAA and were named Grand Champions. They will go on to the MSBA championships Prelim performance on November 8.