Staff report
TIFIN — The Minster girls were first and the Russia girls were third out of 45 Division-3 teams Saturday in the annual Tiffin Cross Country Carnival.
Chloe Flora of Botkins turned in another superb effort, finishing third out of 321 runners. She finished in 19:13.77.
Minster’s Morgan Pohl was fifth in 19:38.9, Kaitlyn Albers was eighth in 19:43.2, Julia Slonkosky was ninth in 19:49.05, Kaci Bornhorst was 11th in 19:53.65, and Pilar Slonkosky 26th in 20:40.64.
Leading the Lady Raiders was Lauren Heaton, 12th in 20:02. Molly Kearns was 21st in 20:30, Anna Fiessinger 43rd in 21:10, Shae Goubeaux was 59th in 21:40, and Claire Meyer was 67th in 21:53.
Lehman’s Jenna Zimmerman placed 40th in 21:05.75 and Fort Loramie’s Rachel Schmitmeyer was 45th in 21:11.76.
The Fort Loramie boys placed sixth in D-3A out of 44 teams. Minster was 14th.
Minster’s Ben Butler was the top local/area finisher, placing 13th out of 298 runners in 16:38.02.
Fort Loramie’s Jake Rethman was 21st in 16:56.94, Tom Ballas was 26th in 17:02.54, and Joe Ballas was 29th in 17:12.56.
The Russia boys were led by Andrew Ball, 49th in 17:41.
Aaron Fullenkamp of Botkins was 40th in 17:28.33.
Spencerville
The New Bremen boys finished with the team championship in the Spencerville Invitational Saturday, edging St. Henry 62-63 in the 14-team field. Houston was third with 85.
New Bremen was led by Cort Speckman in third place in 17:18.1. Jason Zircher was eighth in 17:33.4, Kaelen Reed 13th in 18:12.1, Ezra Ferguson was 16th in 18:18.7, and Hunter Suchland 23rd in 18:38.6.
Houston’s Tristin Freistuhler was fifth in 17:23.5. Ethan Knouff was 11th and Troy Riley 12th for the Wildcats.
Jackson Center’s Parker Morris placed 14th and New Knoxville’s Marcus Nitschke was 17th.
The New Bremen girls were third out of seven teams with 69 points.
The Lady Cardinals were led by Makenna Brackman, who was third in 20:17.7. Houston’s Morgan Ely was ninth in 20:59.2.
In junior high boys action, Houston won the team title, with Ethan Holbrooks sixth in 11:46.2 and Caden Holbrooks eighth in 11:47.2. Blake Jacobs was 22nd, Joseph Earl 25th and Liam McKee 55th.
Mason Dapore of Russia was fifth in 11:45.4, and Christopher Elchert of Jackson Center was ninth in 11:57.6.
