District cross country: Eastwood flexes running muscles
10/21/2001FREMONT - Eastwood's cross country program flexed its running muscles at the Northwest Ohio Division II district meet at Terra Community College yesterday, winning the boys and girls titles with strong performances.
The Eastwood girls, ranked No. 2 in the state behind Cleveland Heights Beaumont, dominated by beating second-place Fostoria by 40 points (30-70). Casey Ulinski paced the Eagles with a second-place finish in 20:23.1.
“On paper, we had the best team coming in,” Eastwood coach Richard Morgan said. “No one ran good times, but the course was slow and muddy. They were decent times, but we still have a long way to go.”
Oak Harbor (78 points) and Upper Sandusky (85), led by Amy Oehler's first-place individual finish (20:04.1), qualified for the regional at Hedges-Boyer Park in Tiffin next Saturday.
Ryan Schroeder cruised to a first-place finish in the boys race (16:41.5) to lead Eastwood to a 61-94 victory over Upper Sandusky. Clyde (113) and Bellevue (121) also qualified for the regional.
“Ryan ran really well,” Morgan said. “We knew (Raymond Bibb of Bellevue) would run with him for a while, but Ryan pulled away and ran confidently.”
Hopewell-Loudon's Carime Reinhart and Toledo Christian's Dan Lane, both all-state performers from last season, ran the best times on the 3.1-mile course in any division. Reinhart beat teammate Amy Jacobs by nearly 11/2 minutes with a time of 18:49.4.
Lane beat Reinhart's brother, Craig, for first place in the Division III-2 race with a time of 16:40.5. Craig Reinhart followed with a 16:54 clocking. Fostoria St. Wendelin's Josh Souder won the Division III-1 boys race with a time of 16:57.
Carime Reinhart's win led Hopewell-Loudon to the Division III-1 title with 40 points. Otsego (73), Sandusky St. Mary's (87) and Woodmore (103) also advance.
Liberty-Benton (24), led by Lindsay Kayle's first-place run of 20:09.5, won the Division III-2 race, followed by Elmwood (52), St. Wendelin (89) and Margaretta (96).
Local individual qualifiers in the Division III-1 race were Sophia Afridi, Maumee Valley Country Day (4th, 20:52.5); Rachel Munoz, Lakota (6th, 20:58), and Barb Davies, Gibsonburg (7th, 21:15.1).
Qualifiers in the Division III-2 girls were Alana Margraf, New Riegel (5th, 21:34.6); Betsy Mitchell, Cardinal Stritch (6th, 21:36.9), and Lisa Ortiz, Old Fort (13th, 22:14.2).
Lakota (61) edged out Elmwood (74) and Woodmore (78) for the Division III-1 title, while Fremont St. Joseph (50) won in the Division III-2 race with Liberty-Benton (85), Sandusky St. Mary's (86), and Hopewell-Loudon (100) also qualifying.
Along with Souder, other boys individual qualifiers in Division III-1 were Levi Rausch, Arlington (2nd, 16:57.1); Jordan Miller, Old Fort (3rd, 17:18.8); Evan Baker, Bettsville (4th, 17:24.5); Jason Bumb, New Riegel (7th, 17:50.7); Jeff Urbanski, St. Wendelin (9th, 18:00), and Drew Williamson, Gibsonburg (13th, 18:12).
Joining Lane as individual qualifiers in Division III-2 were fellow Toledo Area Athletic Conference runners Jamie Afridi, Maumee Valley Country Day (3rd, 16:57.4) and Todd Hamilton, Cardinal Stritch (15th, 18:08.6).
Boys qualifiers in its Division II race include Ben Mills, Otsego (3rd, 17:21.1); Brian Hitchings, Port Clinton (5th, 17:25.1); Nic Apling, Oak Harbor (7th, 17:28.1); Jason Kehres, Margaretta (9th, 17:36.4); Adam Miller, Margaretta (11th, 17:37.1); Nathan Judd, Port Clinton (14th, 17:44.1), and Eric Riedmaier, Port Clinton (15th, 17:44.5).
Individuals qualifying for the regional in the girls Division II race include Holly Summer (7th, 21:28) and Brittany Bush (15th, 22:16), both of Bellevue.
OTTAWA - Nick Kruse of Napoleon established a new Division II district boys cross country record with a time of 16.02 yesterday, and two teammates finished second and third - yet the Wildcats did not win the team championship.
Van Wert took places 4, 5, 7, 13 and 14 for 43 points to trump Napoleon's 1, 2, 3, 19 and 25 spots for 50.
Napoleon's Adam Rathge was second in 16:43 and Scott Damman was third at 16:47.
Jon Campbell paced Van Wert in 16:56.
Also advancing to the regional next week were Coldwater and Bryan. Brandon Scribner paced the Golden Bears with an eighth-place finish in 17:13.
Napoleon's girls finished 1, 3 4 and did win a team title with 39 points to Van Wert's 46.
Leading the Wildcats were Kathryn Huddle (19:19), Amberly Conklin (20:02) and Danielle Zumfelde (20:07).
Also advancing to the regional were Ottawa-Glandorf, paced by Nicole Rosselit (8th, 20:29), and Defiance, led by Megan Yoder (10th, 20:32.)
OTTAWA - In Division III, there were two meets conducted for boys and girls.
Columbus Grove won the boys district 1 meet and the girls district 2 meet.
Stryker won the boys district 2 meet while Tinora won the girls district 1 title.