Phillips wins back-to-back WBL CC meets

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

DEFIANCE — For the second straight season, Caylee Phillips won the Western Buckeye League individual cross country championship and in the process set a new league championship meet record.

The Van Wert senior won Saturday’s WBL meet in Defiance with a time of 18:42 to easily outdistance the Celina duo of Kaylie Dameron (19:16) and Joscelyn Dameron (19:51).

“Caylee’s peformance wasn’t impressive just because she ran the second fastest time of her career and set the WBL championship meet record, which had stood for 25 years – it was most impressive because she did it completely by herself,” head coach Ryan Holliday said. “She took the lead from the gun, never looked back and ran the race without any competitors near her. It was a great tune up and confidence builder heading into the postseason, a time when she knows she’ll be at her best.”

Kyra Welch was Van Wert’s next highest finisher, placing 11th with a time of 20:40, followed by Rachel Spath (20th, 21:02), Tyra McClain (24th, 21:10) and Ali Gemmer (27th, 21:24).

As a team, the Lady Cougars finished third with 83 points, behind Shawnee (59) and Celina (64). Defiance was fourth, (87), followed by St. Marys Memorial (125), Kenton (130), Wapakoneta (170), Bath (183) and Ottawa-Glandorf (231).

“We went into the race knowing Shawnee was the team to beat,” Holliday said. “We keyed off of them and although we fell a little short of our ultimate goal of beating them and winning the WBL championship, we left feeling very encouraged about who we are as a team.”

“We had some outstanding individual performances that give us even more confidence moving forward,” Holliday continued. “We’ll get another shot at them (Shawnee) at districts and we know we’ll be a week fitter and fresher.”

On the boys side, Hunter Sherer was Van Wert’s highest finisher, placing seventh overall with a time of 16:51. Teammate Gage Wannemacher finished 20th with a time of 17:41, followed by Jacob Sealscott (39th, 18:26), Jayden Welker (44th, 18:38) and Ben Lange (49th, 18:46). As a team, the Cougars finished fifth.

Defiance had the top three finishers – Mhalicki Bronson (15:23), Cooper Morton (16:26) and Brennen Roehrig (16:27), and the host Bulldogs easily won the team title with 22 points. Ottawa-Glandorf finished as the runner-up (77 points), followed by St. Marys Memorial and Shawnee (97 each), Van Wert (139), Celina (140), Wapakoneta (211), Elida (218), Kenton (221) and Bath (249).

Van Wert will run at the Division II district meet at Ottawa Park in Ottawa on Saturday.