Lancer boy runners 6th, girls 10th in meet

Van Wert independent

COLDWATER — The Lincolnview Lancer cross country teams competed at the Coldwater Invitational Thursday night. Both teams ran their best team races to close the regular season. The boys placed sixth in the highly competitive field, only being beaten by four state ranked Division III teams and one state ranked Division II school.

The Lancer boys ran the course with an average top five time of 17:46. They were once again led by freshman Bayley Tow, who finished the race in a season best time of 17:16.  The Lancers had four runners under 18 minutes, including Jeff Jacomet (17:42), Ben Bilimek (17:50), and Austin Treesh (17:55). Rounding out the top five was freshman Alex Rodriguez (18:08).  The Lancer top five was followed closely by Brandon Jacomet (18:17), Lucas Myers (18:24), Doug Hicks (18:44), and Angelo Katalenas (18:53).

“The boys have worked very hard this season and it felt good to see that hard work pay off tonight,” said Lincolnview Coach Matt Langdon. “This was one of the better teams races from top to bottom that I have seen while here at Lincolnview.

“Now we need to refocus and look toward the NWC meet and see if we can keep this rolling,” Langdon said.

The girls’ team placed 10th in the field and were led by two outstanding individual performances.  Both Kerri Grothaus and Karissa Burns ran career best times on the course, with Grothaus finishing the race in a time of 21:06 and Burns one place behind her in a time of 21:10. Sabrina Barnhart (23:45), Taylor Miller (24:33), and Madelyn Jones (31:24) rounded out the scoring for the Lancer girls.

“I was proud of the girls tonight,” Coach Langdon said. “All season long they have had to battle because of our lack of depth. Kerri and Karissa set the tone for the meet tonight and everyone just followed their lead.”