Lancer boy runners qualify for regionals

SPENCERVILLE — The Lincolnview cross country teams competed in the district tournament in Spencerville on Saturday. The Lancers qualified one team and two individuals to the regional meet next weekend.

Kerri Grothaus placed 16th in a time of 21:31 to qualify for the regional meet in Troy next weekend.  Karissa Burns placed 19th, missing the qualifying mark by only three places.  The girls’ team placed ninth overall.

“Both Kerri and Karissa ran great races today,” said Lincolnview Coach Matt Langdon. “Kerri was fortunate enough to hold on to the last qualifying position.

“Kerri has had an outstanding season and I am excited that she has earned one more chance to run,” he added. “Karissa fought hard and put herself in a position to qualify, but just came up a little short in the end.“

Grothaus will run at 11 a.m. next Saturday at the Division III regional race at Troy.

The boys also had an individual qualifier in Ben Bilimek, who placed 15th in the boys race, but he will not have to run alone as the boys team placed fourth to qualify as a team. Bilimek was followed by teammates Jeff Jacomet (18th), Alex Rodriguez (19th), Lucas Myers (28th), and Austin Treesh (30th).  Also, qualifying out of the boys race were St. Henry, Minster, and Crestview.

“For the fourth race in a row, the boys had an unbelievable pack,” Langdon said. “Today, our number one runner was sick and it was amazing to watch the other boys step up.

“They probably ran the best race of the year despite not having our best runner in our top five,” he added. “It will be exciting to see what they can do next week at the regional meet. With a pack of seven like ours, anything can happen.”

The boys will run at 1:30 p.m. in the Division III regional in Troy.