Minster teams earn titles at MAC championships

FORT RECOVERY - In some ways it was déjà vu as the Minster boys and girls swept the MAC team titles for the third year in a row.

While the Wildcat girls claimed their fourth straight and 28th overall title in dominating fashion, the Wildcat boys had to fight off a charging Versailles squad to earn their third consecutive title and 15th of all-time.

The Minster boys entered the running finals with a 33-point lead over Versailles, which they earned during Tuesday night's field events. As the meet wore on, however, the Tigers inched ever closer after five event wins and five runner-up finishes. 
   Heading into the 3,200-meter run, Minster's lead had shrunk to just 7 1/2 points, though with the official scoring a few events behind and several close finishes, no one seemed to know the exact point differential. When Versailles' Joe Spitzer won the 3,200 by a 13-second margin, it appeared the Tigers would seize the lead.

But back in the second pack of runners was Minster's Carter Pohl. He hovered between sixth and seventh place early, but spurred on by the urgent appeals of his coaches, he began to gain on the lead pack of five. He methodically worked his way into fifth and then fourth place, and had his sights set on Fort Recovery's Travis Sutter for third nearing the end of the seventh lap. But Carter's tank began to approach empty and he slowly fell back during the final lap.
   With 100 meters to go, Parkway's Matt Gaerke and Ben Schlemmer both put in sprints in attempts to pass Pohl. Carter responded, and it was close to a three-way dead heat at the line. In the end, Pohl finished five hundredths of a second ahead of Gaerke for fourth place and the badly needed five points that went with it.
   One Versailles fan was heard to say they had never cheered so hard for Parkway before. Minster coach Larry Topp admitted he had been cheering for the Parkway runners when they were staying ahead of a second Versailles entrant, but as they closed in on Pohl he changed to "Oh, no!"
   With Minster now ahead by 1 1/2 points, the MAC championship, as track meets so often do, came down to the 4x400 relay. Jared Thobe led off for the Wildcats, and at the handoff he was within half a step of Versailles. Jacob Dues also stayed close during his leg, but trailed the Tigers by about one second at the end of his run.
   Conner Tumbusch, winner of the 800, was next and made the race even tighter. He battled his Versailles counterpart side by side down the homestretch and made his handoff one step ahead of the Tigers.
   That left 400 champion Jack Poeppelman to bring home the Wildcat victory. He sprinted ahead early, but by the backstretch could no longer pull away. The Tigers closed the gap and pulled almost even on the homestretch, but a final Poeppelman burst gave Minster the one-second victory and secured the team championship.  
   The final standings showed Minster with 158 1/2 points and Versailles with 155. Fort Recovery finished third with 81 points.
   Poeppelman was closely chased by two Versailles runners in the 400 and held a lead of just a couple of steps entering the final straightaway. At that point he slowly pulled away to chalk up the win by almost a full second.

In the 800, Tumbusch set a new personal record of 2:00.71 as he led the entire second lap but barely held off Versailles' Joe Spitzer for the win. Teammate Ben Butler, who had hurt a muscle during the 1,600, suffered through this race. He was a favorite to win, but instead toughed through the pain to finish fifth and gain another crucial four points for the Wildcats. 
   Fort Recovery took two event wins on the night. After finishing second in the 110 hurdles, Robby LeFevre returned to win the ensuing 100 dash with a time of 11.53 seconds. LeFevre finished second in the 200 and took part in the closest finish of the night, Fort Recovery's win in the 4x200 relay.
   The event was a nip and tuck battle throughout between the Indians and Wildcats. Tanner Koch, LeFevre and Caleb Martin ran the first three legs for Fort Recovery and opened up a slight lead of about three steps. Anchorman Wes Wenning held the lead throughout most of his leg, but Poeppelman surged in the final 10 meters to cause a photo finish. 
   Both teams finished with the time of 1:32.85. The finish line photo replay showed that while Poeppelman's head crossed the line first, it is the chest and shoulders that count. The judges ruled that Wenning's chest crossed a hair before Poeppelman's, making the Indians became MAC champions in the 4x200.
   The final local boys' winner was Marion Local's Colin Homan in the pole vault. Both Homan and Versailles' Luke Shellhaus cleared 13-4 on their second attempts, but only Homan was successful when the bar was raised to 13-8. As he did after last year's win, Colin had the bar raised to 14-1 in an attempt to set a new school record. While two of his attempts were very close, the school record did not fall.

The Minster girls came out of Tuesday's preliminaries with a 28 1/2 point lead over their main rivals from Versailles. Thanks to four more event wins and four runner-up finishes, the Wildcats were able to increase their lead to 71 1/2 points by the end of the meet. The final margin was 183 1/2 to 112 for Minster over the Tigers. New Bremen finished in third with 86 points, Marion Local was fourth with 76 and St. Henry finished fifth with 64 points.

For the second year in a row, a big point scorer for Minster was senior Maggie Meiring, who placed third in the 100 hurdles and later won the 300 hurdles. She was also a member to the 4x400 relay team, which closed the girls' portion of the meet with a dominating six-second victory over New Bremen while posting a season-best time of 4:02.54.
   Joining Meiring in the 4x400 relay were Cassie Francis, Julia Slonkosky and Madeline Magato. Magato also won the 800, passing teammate Francis in the final corner for the win.

The other Minster win came in the 3,200. Senior Kaci Bornhorst jumped out to an early lead and left the field behind. with a time of 11:31.17, 32 seconds ahead of New Bremen's Bailey Bronkema.
   Three other local girls won MAC championships on Friday evening. Parkway's Clista Hellwarth won the 100 hurdles after holding off a late charge from Marion Local's Aubrey Thobe to win with a time of 16.11 seconds. 

Perhaps one of the happiest winners on the night was St. Henry's Alexis Heath in the 1,600. Heath struggled in the first three laps to keep up with Minster's Kaitlynn Albers but turned on the gas for the final lap, taking the lead with 100 meters to go and finishing with a time of 5:22.90, more than six seconds faster than the previous school record.

New Bremen's Paige Jones won the 400 in a battle with Fort Recovery's Cassidy Martin. Jones took the lead with 100 meters remaining and held on for the victory in 58.91. It was Jones' best time this season but still slower than the school record she set at last year's regional meet. 

Most of the area MAC schools will travel to Spencerville next Thursday and Saturday for the Division III district meet. The Coldwater boys will compete at the Division II district meet at Defiance next Wednesday and Friday.