Cougars win DSJ Invite, Lancers second

Van Wert independent sports

DELPHOS — Cross country season began for Van Wert and Lincolnview on Saturday and it couldn’t have started much better for the two programs.

The Cougars won the Delphos St. John’s Blue Jay Invitational and had the No. 2-4 individual finishers and had six runners in the top 16, while the Lancers finished second and had five runners in the top 23.

While Perry’s Braden Yingst was the individual champion with a time of 16:05.31, Van Wert’s Hunter Sherer, Gage Springer and Gage Wannemacher finished 2-3-4, with roughly half a second separating the three. Sherer recorded a time of 17:07.38, followed by Springer (17:07:65) and Wannemacher (17:07;97). Freshman Drew Laudick finished 12th (18:33.03) and Ryan Miller rounded out the scoring for the Cougars (15th, 18:46.85). In addition, Jayden Welker placed 16th with a time of 18:48.01.

Lincolnview was led by Conner Baldauf, who logged a 13th place finish and a time of 18:42.54. Josh Haines finished 18th for the Lancers (19:05.02), followed by Daegan Hatfield (21st, 19:12.65), Evan Johns (22nd, 19:14.20) and Brandon Renner (19.14.67).

The Cougars finished with 21 team points, while the Lancers tallied 92 points at the 13-team event. On the girls’ side, Van Wert finished fourth and Lincolnview seventh. Liberty-Benton was first (48), followed by Anna (75), Delphos St. John’s (84), Van Wert (96), Van Buren (100), Bluffton (151), Lincolnview (173) and Antwerp (192).

Lincolnview and Van Wert will compete at the Wayne Trace Invitational on Tuesday and the Columbus Grove Invitational on Saturday.

Van Wert’s Kyra Welch placed sixth overall (21:27.56), followed by Tyra McClain (11th, 22:02.16), Lexi Deitemeyer (26th, 23:50.85), Alyssa Knittle (39th, 24:49.85) and Sarah Verville (45th, 25:13.58).

Lincolnview was paced by Julia Stetler, who finished 17th with a time of 22:44.82). She was followed by Kendall Coil (29th, 24:03.27), Emma Hatcher (51st, 26:07.27) and a pair of freshmen, Lindsey Hatcher (65th, 27:31.46) and Savhanna Starner (77th, 29:26.21)