County runners impress at districts

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports

COLUMBUS GROVE — What a day for Van Wert County cross country teams, as the Van Wert boys finished as Division II district champions, while the Crestview boys were crowned as a district champion in Division III. The Lincolnview girls secured a district title at Columbus Grove on Saturday. All county squads will represented at this Saturday’s regional meet.

Division II boys

Van Wert captured the district team title in comfortable fashion. The Cougars finished with 50 team points, compared to 65 by Celina. Bryan finished third (69), Bath fourth (111) and Ottawa-Glandorf fifth (130) in the 11-team field.

The Cougars had five runners in the top 17, including runner-up Owen Scott, who set a new school record with a time of 15:23.38. Drew Laudick finished fourth overall (16:12.43), followed by Harrison Sloan (11^th, 16:44.90), Noah Spath (17:02.90) and Quintin Parrish (17^th, 17:04.86).

“Overall the boys ran very strong and executed a great race plan,” Van Wert head coach Kimberly Laudick said. “It is usually a fast course and with cooler temperatures we were able to see some personal records and another school record by Owen. Taking the title of district champs was another goal we were able to cross off but we knew we had to be ready to compete to accomplish that. Each week gets more competitive so we will have to focus on what we need to do in order to race well and advance to the following week.”

Ottawa-Glandorf’s Ty Rosengarten won the individual title (15:19.86).

Division III boys

Crestview (70 team points) finished behind Columbus Grove (56) in the Division III meet. However, the OHSAA combined two districts into one race and crowned two champions and two runners-up, making the Knights one of the champions.

The Knights were led by Andy Heth, who placed fifth overall (16:19.59) and Lincoln Smith, who finished seventh with a time of 16:32.08. Kale Vining finished 12^th (16:44.46) and Derek Young placed 17^th (16:51.93). Payton Scott rounded out the scoring by placing 31^st (17:25.13).

“The boys continue to impress me,” head coach Randy Grandstaff said. “Today they ran with great intensity. We had all seven boys run personal records, and we had four guys run in the 16s today, which was impressive. I’m looking forward to next week’s regional meet.”

Lincolnview finished third as a team with 103 points and the Lancers were led by Evan Johns, who recorded a fourth place finish (16:18.98). Kreston Tow was 14^th (16:45.36), followed by Myles Moody (26^th, 17:18.85), Max Hammons (30^th, 17:24.65) and Kaleb Denman (34^th, 17:28.19).

“The boys showed a tremendous amount of grit and fight as they also ran their best team race of the season, lowering their season average to 17:04,” Lincolnview head Matt Langdon said. “Evan Johns ran a career best time. We are excited to have an opportunity at the regional meet and continue to improve down the tournament trail. This group has a lot of experience on the course at Tiffin so we plan to attack the race the same way we always do.”

Division II girls

A pair of Van Wert runners will move on to regional competition.

Symphony Schuerman and Noelle Byrum qualified as individuals during Saturday’s meet. Schuerman finished 10^th overall (19:41.14) and Byrum placed 16^th (20:31.82).

As a team, Van Wert finished sixth out of 12 teams. Ottawa-Glandorf was the team champion and Kenton finished as the runner-up.

“We knew it was going to be between three schools for that fourth (and final) qualifying spot,” Laudick said. “Unfortunately we came up short but we did have two girls advance to the regional meet, which we are very excited for.”

Division III girls

Lincolnview junior Brynleigh Moody enjoyed a record-setting day, as she finished as the district champion by a notable gap. Moody won Saturday’s race with a time of 18:55.09, while runner-up Maria Niekamp of Minster ran a time of 19:16.71.

The Lady Lancers (94) finished second to Minster (43) in the team standings but both were crowned district champions at the combined district. It’s the second consecutive district title for the Lancers.

Lincolnview had two other runners in the top 12 – Kiera Breese (sixth, 19:39.87) and Kassidy Hammons (12^th, 20:23.1). Harper Reindel (39^th, 21:36.80) and Josie Miller (40^th, 21:44.18) rounded out the scoring for the Lancers.

“The girls continue to improve as they set two school records,” Langdon said. “Brynleigh broke her own record and the team also broke last year’s record by running a 20:28. We had two other girls run career bests in Keira Breese, who broke into the 19s for the first time in her career. We are going to enjoy the accomplishment of back-to-back district team championships and then begin to focus on regionals. It was a fun day with a lot of smiles.”

Crestview’s Anna Gardner finished 12^th overall (20:28.47) and qualified for regionals as an individual.

“Anna ran a brilliant race and was happy to see her return to the regional meet again,” Grandstaff said. “She is running well right now.”

Division II and III regionals will be held Saturday at Carnival Park in Tiffin.