VWMS runners finish 2nd in Delphos meet

DELPHOS — This past Saturday, the Van Wert Middle School cross country teams opened up their season at the Blue Jay Invitational. With teams comprised of mostly newcomers, the Lady Cougars managed a second place finish out of seven teams, and the boys finished an impressive second out of 13 teams.

Leading the way for the Lady Cougars was eighth grader Megan Barnhart.  She finished 11th out of 78 runners with a time of 14:19.  Not too far behind were runners Natalie Riethman, 14th (14:48), and LeAndryce Miller, 17th (15:03).  Also scoring for the Cougars were Anna Henkaline, 27th (15:34), and Larissa Laudick 31st (15:43).  Ashlynn Friesner, 33rd (16:00), and Morgan Bracken, 43rd (16:41) completed the top seven.

Other Cougar runners competing included: Maggie Cripe 46th, Shianne Baldwin 52nd, Caylee Boroff 63rd, Tori Smith 64th, Olivia Profit 65th, Karli Thatcher 68th, and Valerie Barnhart 77th.

Eighth grader Cade Fleming was the top Cougar finisher on the boy’s side.  His time of 12:14 earned him a fifth place finish in a race of 127 runners.  Sam Easley, 14th (12:41), and Dylan Lautzenheiser, 16th (12:46), were the next two Cougars across the line.  Rounding out the top seven were Nathan Murphy, 31st (13:22), Jared Schaffer 33rd (13:23), Ryan Keber 46th (13:50), and Nick White 47th (13:51).

Also competing for the Cougar harriers were Nick Gutierrez 54th, Nick Etter 55th, Ben Scheidt 56th, Cade Chiles 59th, Braden VanCleave 68th, Bailey Neuenschwander 71st, Tyler Nygren 73rd, Andrew Perry 93rd, Carter Eikenbary 101st, Jacob Covey 123rd, and Nick Motycka 124th.