Monday, October 19th, 2015
Celina girls finish second; St. Marys' Wilker individual champion, Bulldog boys fourth
Western Buckeye League Cross Country Meet
By Gary R. Rasberry
Photo by Gary R. Rasberry/The Daily Standard
St. Marys' Kelly Wilker pulled away down the stretch to win the WBL girls' cross country race on Saturday at Van Wert High School.
VAN WERT - Celina cross country coach Dan Otten was happy about his girls' team's showing at the Western Buckeye League cross country meet on Saturday.
St. Marys' Kelly Wilker was a bit happier.
The Celina girls came up with a strong showing to finish runner-up in the team standings to Defiance by a 62-82 margin.
Wilker passed two-time league champion Allie Zofkie of Wapakoneta midway through the 5,000-meter event and never looked back to capture the race title at Van Wert High School.
"I thought there were five pretty strong teams that, if anyone ran their greatest, any five could win: Defiance, us, Van Wert, St. Marys and Wapak," Celina coach Dan Otten said. "We ran well. I don't think we could beat Defiance. ... That's about as well as we could have done."
Zofkie, who was looking for her third straight WBL high school race title - having also won the two junior high titles - got out to a fast start and was ahead of Wilker, Defiance's Emily Poling, Shawnee's Faith Baxter and Celina's Lauren McDonough at the mile mark.
As the lead pack came around for the second time behind the track, Wilker was in front with Zofkie beginning to fade behind. By the time the runners came on the track for the final stretch, Wilker was in front and Baxter, Poling and McDonough along with Elida's Alyssa Turrentine, had made moves ahead of Zofkie.
"I knew she was going to be good competition," Wilker said of Zofkie. "She's a great runner. I knew I had to run my race and gain on her, not worry about anyone behind me. Just focus on first place and hope for the best."
Wilker crossed the finish line in 19:10.40. Baxter was second at 19:37.20, Poling third at 19:38.20 and McDonough fourth at 19:39.30. Zofkie was caught down the stretch by Turrentine (20:03.30) to finish sixth at 20:06.30.
"The last 800 meters, I knew I had to keep pulling away," Wilker said.
Celina's Sara Wenning (16th), Lauren Jackson (19th), Sawyer Weitzel (21st and Nicole Bowsher (22nd) also earned special mention All-WBL honors.
St. Marys' Morgan Henschen was seventh to join Wilker on the first team honors list that goes to the top 12 runners. Laura Wilker just missed first team and finished 14th to make special mention.
The Roughriders' effort lifted them to fourth place in the standings.
"There was a lot of parity today. It was a tough day," St. Marys coach Rob Cisco said. "I was excited to see Kelly run a great race"
In the boys' race, Defiance dominated by putting its first five in second through sixth places to score 20 points, well ahead of Van Wert's 73 points. Celina finished fourth with 102 points with St. Marys finishing seventh with 177 points.
"Our guys ran well," Otten said. "I though we'd be fourth. I was hoping we could beat Wapak, but lost by three."
Preventing Defiance from achieving the perfect score of 15 was Van Wert's Calahan Wolfrum, who won the race with a time of 16:16.20.
Celina's Adrian Hurley finished seventh to earn first team All-WBL honors. Earning special mention honors were Celina's Roman Mitchell (16th), St. Marys' Dominic Brown (19th) and Celina's Stetson Miller (22nd).
Celina's Ethan Ly won the WBL middle school boys' race, running the 3,200-meter course in 11:05.60. Noah Tobin was the first St. Marys runner to finish, placing fifth. Shawnee edged Van Wert 69-71 for the team title with St. Marys third and Celina fifth.
Van Wert won the middle school girls' team title with a 70-75 win over Defiance. Celina was third with 76 points with St. Marys seventh. Van Wert's Caylee Phillips won the race in 12:34.70. Celina's Karissa Hoying was fourth. St. Marys's Allison Jacobs was 10th.
The postseason gets underway Saturday with district meets. Celina travels to Oregon near Toledo for the Division I district with Wapakoneta also competing. St. Marys and the other remaining WBL teams compete at the Division II district at Ottawa. Due to ACT testing, races will start at noon at both venues.
Photo by Gary R. Rasberry/The Daily Standard
Lauren McDonough's fourth-place finish helped the Celina girls finish as team runner-up at the WBL cross country meet on Saturday.
Photo by Gary R. Rasberry/The Daily Standard
Celina's Adrian Hurley, 322, leads St. Marys' Matt Jutte during the boys' race at the WBL cross country meet.
Photo by Gary R. Rasberry/The Daily Standard
Celina's Sawyer Weitzel, 221, and Sara Wenning, 223, run the course at the WBL cross country meet Saturday in Van Wert.
