Staff report
High school cross country runners competed in district meets on Saturday, and five county/area teams claimed district championships.
In action at the Miami Valley Career Tech Center, the Anna boys and the Russia girls took top honors. Anna was clearly the top team, finishing with 58 points, well ahead of runner-up West Milton with 120.
Lucas Huber led the Rockets by placing fourth.
The top eight teams advanced to the regional meet this weekend, and that included Botkins, Fort Loramie and Houston, who were third, fourth, fifth and eighth, respectively.
Among the top 10 runners were also Caleb Ball of Russia fifth, Tom Ballas of Fort Loramie seventh, Aaron Fullenkamp of Botkins ninth and Cameron Flora of Botkins 10th.
In the girls race, Chloe Flora of Botkins continued her domination, winning the race by 46 seconds.
Joining champion Russia as regional qualifiers were Botkins in fifth, Lehman in sixth and Fort Loramie in seventh.
Making the top 10 were Molly Kearns of Russia sixth, and Lauren Heaton of Russia 10th.
• In Division 1 boys action at Miami Valley, Sidney’s Ian Bowman earned a spot in the regional meet. He was 20th in the district race.
• In the district meets at Ottawa, rather than put all the teams together like they did at Miami Valley, there were two races each for D-3 boys and girls.
Minster’s top-ranked girls had to contend with only eight other schools and they were all overmatched by the Lady Wildcats. Minster had the top five finishers for a shutout, and seven of the top eight runners. Kaci Bornhorst won the race.
The Minster and New Bremen boys both came away with district titles in the two races at Ottawa.
Regional races will be held Saturday at Troy and Tiffin for runners from the area. The top four teams and top 16 individuals will qualify for the state meet.
High school cross country
Regional qualifiers
From Saturday districts
At Miami Valley Career
Tech Center
Division 1
Sidney — 20. Ian Bowman 17:17.89.
Division 3
Boys
(With District places)
Anna — 4. Lucas Huber 16:43.98, 11. Tyler McKee 17:17.54, 12. Bradley Axe 17:18.9, 13. Korash Assani 17:21.04, 18. Joel Gaier 17:34.13, 44. Matthew Burden 18:09.67, 73. Kyle Christman 18:53.1.
Botkins — 9. Aaron Fullenkamp 17:09.82, 10. Cameron Flora 17:11.99, 25. Austin Fullenkamp 17:44.4, 35. Mathew Prout 17:54.55, 51. Ryan Egbert 18:23.8, 61. Konnor Burmeister 18:33.68, 145. Jared Goubeaux 21:19.46.
Fort Loramie — 7. Tom Ballas 16:54.08, 14. Joe Ballas 17:23.12, 24. Noah Siegel 17:41.95, 32. Jake Rethman 17:53.18, 53. Riley Holland 18:28.99, 66. Gavin Schlze 18:43.08, 69. Collin Luthman 18:46.49.
Russia — 5. Caleb Ball 16:44.6, 16. Alex Seger 17:29.98, 29. Ethan Monnier 17:49.38, 31. Andrew Ball 17:50.97, 86. Jordan Busse 19:04.77, 100. Evan Monnier 19:25.97, 130. Jake Gariety 20:27.93.
Houston — 21. Tristin Freistuhler 17:38.66, 27. Troy Riley 17:47.62, 42. Ethan Knouff 18:01.29, 56. Parker Cox 18:32.17, 76. Azen Reier 18:55.27, 79. Dakota Francis 18:56.4, 92. Jacob Slater 19:11.94.
Jackson Center — 20. Parker Morris 17:37.84
At Ottawa
Minster — 4. Ben Butler 17:01.6, 15. Jon Albers 17:50.2, 20. Ryan Cavanaugh 18:09.9, 21. Carter Pohl 18:11.1, 26. Ethan Monnin 18:23.5, 60. Jacob Enneking 20.18.9, 85. Andrew Broering 22:07.3.
New Bremen — 1. Cort Speckman 16:56.0, 9. Jason Zircher 17:58.9, 10. Kaelen Reed 18:03.2, 19. Ezra Ferguson 18:26.3, 25. Hunter Suchland 18:36.2, 46. Ethan Myers 19:37.5, 50. Sam Rutschilling 19:56.1.
Girls
At Miami Valley Career
Tech Center
Division 3
(With District places)
Russia — 6. Molly Kearns 19:58.39, 9. Lauren Heaton 20:11.87, 16. Anna Fiessinger 20:26.24, 30. Claire Meyer 21:07.77, 34. Megan Frazier 21:22.0, 40. Becky Pinchot 21:40.26, 42. Shae Goubeaux 21:40.26.
Botkins — 1. Chloe Flora 18:57.03, 29. Kayla Heuker 21:05.77, 31. Payton Amstutz 21:08.38, 38. Brooklyn Flora 21:31.4, 74. Cassie McGowan 22:50.67, 82. Adriana Jutte 23:02.07, 113. Hannah Bailey 24:24.83.
Lehman — 11. Jenna Zimmerman 20;13.4, 35. Caroline Heitmeyer 21:23.62, 43. Janelle Gravunder 21:40.89, 47. Alanna O’Leary 21:55.36, 51. Maria Schmiesing 22:02.13, 101. Clare Schmiesing 23:44.0, 105. Theresa Flood 23:57.47.
Fort Loramie — 21. Rachel Schmitmeyer 20:45.02, 24. Claire Kazmaier 20:53.6, 54. Erin Chaney 22:09.95, 56. Makenna Geise 22:10.78, 60. Taylor Gasson 22:21.66, 63. Kaitlyn Luebke 22:29.88, 87. Jenna Thomas 23:15.42.
Houston — 22. Morgan Ely 20:45.74.
At Ottawa
Minster — 1. Kaci Bornhorst 19:41.7, 2. Morgan Pohl 20:02.0, 3. Cassie Francis 20:10.1, 4. Julia Slonkosky 20:10.4, 5. Margaret Meiring 20:10.5, 7. Madelina Magoto 20:24.8, 8. Lisa Barlage 20:24.8.
Marion Local — 13. Brianne Homan 21:38.8, 16. Hannah Kramer 21:57.2, 30. Vivian Garman 23:10.3, 32. Tana Bruggeman 23:21.5, 36. Ashlynn Berning 23:32.5, 48. Haley Heitkamp 24:48.9, 53. Emily Kahlig 25:17.9.
New Bremen — 15. Andrea Heitkamp 21:42.6.
Division 2
At Miami Valley Career
Tech Center
Boys
Versailles — 7. Joe Spitzer 16:50.95, 50. Jacob Rose 18:11.39, 52. Noah Pleiman 18:13.93, 72. Adam Gehret 18:59.91, 77. Jacob Wenig 19:11.43, 84. Nick Slonkosky 19:20.86, 112. Brooks Blakeley 20:18.8.
Girls
Versailles — 12. Kara Spitzer 20:08.76, 20. Brynna Blakeley 20:50.3, 24. Liz Watren 21:05.67, 30. Hannah Rose 21:17.61, 31. Tori Schulze 21:17.8, 37. Kenia McEldowney 21:37.2, 46. Madison Grilliot 22:16.83.
