Editor’s note: More weekend results, particularly from area volleyball games, will be published in Wednesday’s edition of the Sidney Daily News.
BOTKINS — Versailles’ Joe Spitzer and the Houston boys cross country team were winners at the Botkins Best of the West Invitational Saturday, as were Megan Rismiller and the Versailles girls team.
Houston had 53 points to win the boys race, while Botkins was second with 102. Spitzer won the individual race in 16:02.1.
There were 15 teams and 150 runners in the boys race.
Houston’s top seven runners included Tristin Freistuhler, 6, 17:23.2; Ethan Knouff, 7, 17:24.2; Blake Jacobs, 11, 17:57.2; Dakota Francis, 14, 18:04.1; Parker Cox, 15, 18:10.8; Patrick Meiring, 27, 18:37.1; and Jacob Slater, 24, 18:40.
Botkins’ top seven included Austin Fullenkamp, 3, 17:17.1; Alan Fullenkamp, 13, 17:59.1; Donovan Brown, 25, 18:44.9; Elliot Goubeaux, 26, 18:51.1; RJ Poeppelman, 35, 19:12.1; Ethan Aufdderhaar, 66, 20:15.1; and Brock Rogers, 76, 20:29.9.
Versailles finished fourth with 124 points.
Aside from Spitzer, the rest of the Tigers’ top seven were Stuart Baltes, 19, 18:24.6; Brooks Blakeley, 22, 18:34; Noah Barga, 39, 19:25.8; Ryan Subler, 43, 19:35.1; Caden Schulze, 44, 19:35.3; and Jared Petitjean, 46, 19:39.4.
Anna finished fifth with 160 points.
Jacob Robinson was the Rockets’ fastest runner at No. 16 with a time of 18:12.9. The rest of Anna’s top seven was Patrick Toller, 17, 18:13.7, Caleb Gaier, 36, 19:17; Cameron Bowersock, 42, 19:34.2; Preston Shannon, 51, 19:42.6; Jacob Osborne, 52, 19:46.1; and Derek Arling, 55, 19:53.
Jackson Center was sixth with 164 points.
The Tigers’ top seven included Parker Morris, 10, 17:56; Christopher Elchert, 20, 18:27; Aidan Reichert, 37, 19:21.3; Grant Lowry, 47, 19:39.5; Jeremy Burch, 53, 19:51.2; Elisha Burch, 91, 20:54.2; and Andrew Lampy, 107, 21:33.8.
Sidney was eighth with 182 points.
The Yellow Jackets’ top seven included Gavin Bockrath, 8, 17:43.7; Ian Bonifas, 9, 17:45.8; Aidan Tangeman, 18, 18:19.1; Spencer Karn, 82, 20:34.8; Noah Schwepe, 96, 21:14.4; Noah Townsend, 99, 21:15.9; and Patrick McClain, 105, 21:31.6.
Lehman finished 14th.
The Cavaliers’ runners included Elias Bezy, 54, 19:51.3; Alex Vanderhorst, 85, 20:42.1; Scott Petersen, 124, 22:48.2; Aaron Topp, 141, 25:21.5; and Andrew Wieman, 150, 32:40.7.
Versailles’ girls team won with 47 points and Botkins was second with 86. There were 10 teams and 120 runners in the girls race.
Rismiller won the race in 20:11.4. The rest of the Tigers‘ top seven included Kenia McEldowney, 4, 20:48.4; Emma Peters, 12, 21:53.0; Dana Rose, 14, 21:02.3; Liz Watren, 18, 21:14.6; Hannah Bey, 19, 22:16.7; and Tori Schulze, 29, 22:54.9.
Emma Koenig was the Trojans’ top runner at No. 10 with a time of 21:49.7. The rest of Botkins’ top seven included Liza Aselage, 17, 22:12.4; Adriana Jutte, 20, 22:36.1; Kelsie Burmeister, 21, 22:39.7; Jill Greve, 22, 22:41.1; Arica Jutte, 31, 23:05.6; and Brooklyn Flora, 23:21.3.
Houston finished fifth with 148 points.
The Wildcats’ runners included Hollie Voisard, 5, 20:55.8; Morgan Ely, 7, 21:20.7; Danielle Stephenson, 45, 23:40.5; Addie White, 52, 23:57.5; and April Stammen, 102, 29:00.2.
Lehman Catholic finished eighth with 194 points.
The Cavaliers’ runners included Alanna O’Leary, 9, 21:33.5; Maria Schmiesing, 16, 22:08.2; Maggie Bezy, 59, 24:20.8; Mirian Bezy, 109, 30:04.2; and Caitlin Swallow, 118, 34:22.4.
Anna finished ninth.
The Rockets‘ top seven runners included Mackenzie Cole, 27, 22:53.3; Addison Brewer, 51, 23:55.5; Ashleigh Jurosic, 61, 24:24.5; Gracen Rogers, 67, 24:58.6; Jada Rowland, 96, 27:58; Lilly Toller, 97, 28:07; and Molly Batchelder, 105, 29.21.5.
Sidney finished tenth.
The Yellow Jackets’ runners included Naida Stephens, 65, 24:56.6; Mikayla Smedley, 74, 25:32.4; Savannah Garber, 75, 25:32.5; and Camryn Smith, 80, 26:01.
Girls Soccer
Summit Country Day 4, Lehman Catholic 0
Summit Country Day scored four goals in a 15-minte span in the first half to spark a 4-0 victory over the Lehman in a battle of state-ranked teams. The Cavaliers (9-3-1) are ranked ninth in the state in Division III, while Summit Country Day (9-1) is ranked first.
“Summit showed why they are the number one team in the state and why many are saying that this is the best Summit team yet,” Lehman coach Jeremy Lorenzo said. “All the intel that we had on them was spot on: very, very fast all over the field with multiple gifted players.”
The Lady Knights’ first goal came at the 27:32 mark, followed by goals at the 19:03, 15:57 and 13:43 marks.
“We knew that we had a very tall task ahead of us today,” Lorenzo said. “I would love to say that we made a bunch of mistakes, but quite honestly, they were just the better team today and scored when they had chances very early on. We got into a huge hole early and that is tough to recover from against a team like Summit.”
Lorenzo challenged his team at halftime.
After getting outshot 12-5 in the first half, Lehman outshot SCD 11-4 in the second half as both team finished with 16 shots.
“I was extremely pleased of how my girls battled in the second half,” Lorenzo said. “We came off the field in the first half a little shell-shocked. The girls had a choice to come back out and fight until the end with everything that had left or throw in the towel. They chose to fight and put together a solid second half.”
Lehman will be back in action on Thursday at home against Anna (12-0) in a battle for first place in the Western Ohio Soccer League.
Boys Soccer
Yellow Springs 4, Lehman Catholic 3
Lehman Catholic boys soccer team dropped a heartbreaker on the road 4-3 against Yellow Springs. The Cavaliers’ record is now 6-4-1.
Jake Emrick got two goals, with Conor O’Leary adding one.
Lehman’s two assists came from Ethan Potts.
The Cavaliers had a 2-0 lead at the half, only to see the tide turn in the second half. Yellow Springs answered with two goals off of corner kicks, but then Emrick nailed a direct kick to put Lehman up by one again. Another corner kick goal and a breakway, however, sealed the deal for the Bulldogs.
Lehman was missing their second leading goal-scorer in O’Leary for the last 30 minutes of the game after he went down in the box after one of Yellow Spring’s scores.
“Losing Conor was a big deal,” Lehman coach Tom Wiseman said. “He’s another weapon on our attack and he’s a big physical player. When you’re playing a very physical and talented team like Yellow Springs, it hurts when a kid like that goes down. And at the end, we were down to one sub because of injuries and an absence. It would have been really nice to have just one more sub on the bench so we could have held on.”
Wiseman is optimistic going forward, with Lehman’s next contest on Tuesday against another ranked team, Miami East.
“Yes, it was a heartbreaker today, but the boys are in good spirits and now realize they are contenders,” Wiseman said. “We just have to make sure we have 100 percent commitment so we can turn the corner on these contest. We know what we have to work on, which is a good thing. Corner-kick defense and playing against physical teams is what we’ll train over the next two weeks.”
Lehman hosts the Vikings at 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
