Woodridge High School’s boys cross country dynasty added another chapter Saturday, November 7, at Fortress Obetz, where the Bulldogs won their second straight Ohio High School Athletic Association Division III state championship and their 12th state title overall, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. Woodridge scored 65 points to win by a wide margin over runner-up Fairless, which finished with 115 points, the Beacon Journal reported.
The Repository of Canton independently confirmed the top of the standings, reporting that Fairless finished runner-up behind 12-time state champion Woodridge and matched its best state finish since the Falcons placed second in Class AA in 1978. The two accounts together confirm both the champion and the size of the gap: Woodridge did not edge the field at Obetz — it separated from it by 50 points.
Woodridge won the title the way deep programs do — without the individual champion. The Beacon Journal reported the Bulldogs’ two All-Ohio runners were Remington Griffiths, 14th in 15:39.6, and John Brock, 18th in 15:47.3, followed by Eli White in 30th at 16:10.8, Nathan Adams in 32nd at 16:12.5 and Devin Pietrowski in 51st at 16:33.6. All five Woodridge scorers finished inside the top 51, a spread no other Division III team in the race could match, according to the Beacon Journal’s results.
The individual title in the race went to Fairless junior Brice Fuller, who repeated as Division III champion in 14:50.7, according to both the Beacon Journal and The Repository. Fuller’s repeat crown and Fairless’s runner-up team finish — the program’s best since 1978, The Repository reported — made the Falcons the day’s other big Division III story, even as Woodridge’s depth carried the team trophy back to Peninsula in Summit County.
Conditions at Obetz were mid-40s and overcast, the Beacon Journal reported — classic November championship weather for a meet that closed the Ohio high school cross country season. The Division III boys race was one of several titles decided on the Fortress Obetz course Saturday, a day NewsForce247 also covered in Teays Valley’s Reese Galinger winning the Division I girls race and in Milford’s first-ever girls team championship.
Twelve state championships is a number that puts Woodridge in rare company in Ohio cross country. The Beacon Journal’s count of a dozen titles, and The Repository’s description of Woodridge as a 12-time champion, reflect a program that has sustained excellence across generations of runners — graduating individual stars and returning the next fall with a scoring pack deep enough to win anyway, exactly as it did Saturday with no runner higher than 14th.
That depth is the clearest explanation for the repeat. A team title in cross country is built by the fourth and fifth scorers as much as by the front-runners, and Woodridge’s fifth scorer, Pietrowski in 51st place at 16:33.6 per the Beacon Journal, finished ahead of where most contenders’ scoring lines had already closed. Fairless, even with the individual champion and a historic team finish, still ended 50 points back.
For Summit County, the title continues a strong state-meet weekend and gives the Peninsula school another banner season to celebrate. Woodridge’s back-to-back Division III crowns — last year’s title followed by Saturday’s repeat, as the Beacon Journal reported — mark the program as the standard in its division heading into next season.
The championship also underlines how Woodridge wins. Programs built around a single star are vulnerable to one graduation or one off day at the state meet; a program whose fifth scorer finishes 51st, as the Beacon Journal’s results show Pietrowski did, has a margin for error that travels from season to season. Griffiths and Brock earned All-Ohio honors at 14th and 18th, the Beacon Journal reported, but the trophy was secured by the three teammates who finished behind them inside the top 51.
What happens next for the Bulldogs is the familiar challenge of a champion: replacing graduating scorers while every Division III program in Ohio trains with Obetz in mind. Fairless, with a returning individual champion in Fuller and a runner-up finish to build on, per The Repository, figures to be among the teams chasing Woodridge when the 2027 championship season begins.
Photo: Jonathan Schilling, CC BY-SA 4.0