Celina girls finish second; Bulldog boys finish third; Defiance and Van Wert take titles

SHAWNEE TOWNSHIP - The Celina cross country team had a strong showing at the Western Buckeye League Cross Country Championships on Saturday at Shawnee High School.

Defiance ran away with the girls team title by placing five runners in the top 13 to finish with 27 points, while Celina's Runnin' Women engaged in a duel with Van Wert for runner-up honors. Celina placed its top five runners between 10th and 17th place and Van Wert put its top five runners in between eighth and 21st.

When the scores came out, both Celina and Van Wert finished with 69 points. It came down to the teams' sixth runners to break the tie. Celina's Beth Garwood finished 22nd, but was scored 21st because Elida had not fielded a full team. Van Wert's sixth runner, Nicole Clay, finished 28th and scored 27th, giving the nod to Celina.

"I thought we'd have a chance to beat Van Wert. It would be close," Celina coach Dan Otten said. "Jenna (Coon) and Lauren (McDonough) had a great effort. ... Where we were really good was our 3-4-5 runners on both teams that ran really well."    

Wapakoneta's Allie Zofkie won the race for the second straight season, finishing in 20 minutes, 16.90 seconds. Defiance placed the next four runners with Emily Poling, Olivia Fett, Ashley Weidenhamer and Lindsey Wiles. St. Marys' Kelly Wilker finished fifth.

Jenna Coon and Lauren McDonough were the first two Runnin' Women at the finish line, taking 10th and 11th overall to earn first team All-WBL honors (top 12). Nicole Bowsher, Ashley Robinson and Megan Muhlenkamp finished 15th, 16th and 17th to earn special mention All-WBL honors. Garwood also earned special mention honors for those finishing 13th through 22nd.

St. Marys' Megan Hertenstein earned special mention league honors in finishing 20th. Roschelle Sudman, Hannah Tobin and Laura Wilker finished 24th through 26th, just missing league honors.

In the high school boys' race, Van Wert put its first five runners in the top 17 to win the team title with 33 points. Defiance was second with 51 points. Celina had a solid outing to take third place. St. Marys was seventh.

Van Wert's Connor Holliday won the race in 16:40.13. Defiance's Zach Lockmiller was second with Van Wert's Cade Fleming and Daniel Perry were third and fourth.

Drew Donovan led Celina with an 11th-place finish to earn first team All-WBL honors. Michael Cron (15th) and Roman Mitchell (18th) earned special mention honors. Chad Downey and Stetson Miller placed 23rd and 24th.

"Michael ran well, and behind Roman, Chad and Stetson ran well," Otten said. "Our middle pack is what got them to the place they were."

St. Marys' Matt Jutte earned special mention honors for the Roughriders by finishing 22nd.

The Celina boys captured the middle school team title with 70 points. St. Marys placed fifth. Noah Shrock led Celina with an eighth-place finish with teammate Ethan Ly placing ninth. St. Marys' Noah Tobin was 10th. Shawnee won the middle school girls team title with St. Marys fourth and Celina sixth. St. Marys' Allison Jacobs was third overall with teammate Morgan Henschen fifth. Karissa Hoying was the top Celina finisher in 11th.

Celina and St. Marys travel to Ottawa on Saturday for the Division II district meet.