County teams race at VW Health Invite

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

Led by four top 20 placers, Lincolnview captured the boys’ team title at the Van Wert Cross Country Invitational, held at the Van Wert Reservoir on Saturday. Van Wert finished as the runner-up and Crestview was 10th out of 15 teams.

The Lancer girls enjoyed a third place finish behind two Division II schools, Van Wert placed seventh and Crestview 11th out of 12 teams in the standings. Four other schools had runners compete, but not enough to place in the final team standings.

Boys results

The Lancers finished with 76 team points and were led by Kreston Tow, who finished seventh overall with a time of 16:36.7, followed by Conner Baldauf (10th, 16:49.8). Evan Johns finished 14th (17:00.9) and Maddox Norton 20th (17:29.5). Kaleb Denman, who finished 26th (17:38.5) rounded out the scoring for Lincolnview.

“The boys have had an amazing three weeks of practice so I have been seeing this kind of effort every day,” Lincolnview head coach Matt Langdon said. “It was good to see it all come together in one race, especially on our home course with a lot of fans and former runners coming back to watch the race. This group of boys have been so internally motivated that they are just now starting to see their full potential.”

“I was really pleased with our depth as we were able to get 10 guys in the top 35 of a very competitive race,” he added. “Our JV boys also ran great today and took junks of time off of their previous season bests. It was a great day, but we have a lot of work still ahead.”

Van Wert also had four runners in the top 20 and finished with 99 team points. Drew Laudick led the Cougars with an eighth place finish (16:37), followed by Owen Scott (13th, 16:59.8), John Kramer (17th, 17:19.4) and Rylan Miller (18th, 17:22.8). Noah Spath was Van Wert’s final scorer (18:26.6).

“On the boys side we put together our most complete race of the season with many of our guys running lifetime best times,” head coach Kim Laudick said. “Probably the biggest take away was beating some other WBL schools for the first time this season which I hope gives us confidence as we head to the league meet and beyond. If our guys continue to race like this we can be very successful here on the back end of our season.”

The Knights (271 points) were led by Lincoln Smith (45th, 18:25), followed by Logan Foudy (48th, 18:26), Isaiah Watts (51st, 18:33), Jake Heth (63rd, 19:01), Peyton Scott (94th, 20:06), and John Forwerk (151st, 27:07).

“Today was a great day for racing,” Crestview head coach Randy Granstaff said. “Conditions for the kids were perfect and the new course design allowed most of the team to have personal records today.”

Shawnee’s Noah Williams was the individual champion with a time of 15:48.

Girls results

Brynleigh Moody’s fifth place finish (19.41.3) led Lincolnview, while Ava Milligan finished 11th with a time of 20:19.6). Rounding out the scoring were Keira Breese (16th, 20:38.3), Harper Reinhold (29th, 21:46.2) and Elyssa Renner (46th, 23:06.7).

“The girls really stepped up today,” Langdon said. “We are down several girls due to injury but everyone did their job and made up for those that did not race. It was a big step forward for the team. The girls team is very young, so it is a process to learn how to compete at a high level against quality competition.”

“We are trying to hold the girls accountable and create a culture of race toughness,” he continued. “They did some really good things in practice this week and it showed on the course today. Now, we have to build from this and keep moving forward as we draw closer to conference and the tournament.”

Tyra McClain led Van Wert with a 28th place finish (21:45.8), followed by Kyra Welch (33rd, 21:52.8), Alyssa Knittle (39th, 22:08.1), Harmony Schuerman (40th, 22:16.9), and Braelynn Burk (49th, 23:11.6).

“I thought our girls ran a solid race in a very competitive field,” Laudick said. “We saw a few seasons best from some of our girls as we continue to get fully healthy as a squad.”

Anna Gardner led Crestview with a 32nd place finish and a time of 21:49. Kate Sawmiller finished 50th (23:14), followed by Kristal Scott 59th (23:43), Megan Mosier 68th (24:24), and Anna Scott 98th (27:38).

The ladies averaged a 46 second improvement and the boys averaged 32 second improvements,” Grandstaff said. “I am really pleased with the way both teams are running right now. We are really seeing great improvement.”

Anna’s Paige Steinke won the individual title (17:41.4). Ottawa-Glandorf won the girls’ team title with 67 points while Shawnee was second with 76 points. Lincolnview had 99 points, Van Wert 180 and Crestview 256.