Clean Sweep

By BRUCE MONNIN
Standard Correspondent

COLDWATER - The Midwest Athletic Conference cross country championship meet consisted of four separate races, with the boys and girls in both junior high and high school competing.

In all four races, one runner finished a good distance ahead of their competitors, and that runner was part of the winning team.

Unfortunately for the rest of the conference, all four individual and team winners were from Minster.

The day started with the high school boys. It was a three-way battle from the start, with Minster's Alex Albers holding off the two-pronged challenge from Parkway's Matt Gaerke and Kyle Roth.

"We were trying to work together to break the Minster runner," said Roth. "It helps to have a teammate with the same pace to race with, as well as to practice together. He (Gaerke) is a senior, so I won't have anyone with my pace to run with next year."

"It gives you motivation to have someone running close beside you," agreed Gaerke.

Albers unsuccessfully tried to break away from the Panther duo midway through the race, then finally got away with 800 meters remaining. He ran 13 seconds faster than his previous best, which was fortunate since he won the race by just 10 seconds.

"I cut my knee on a seashell over the summer," explained Albers as to why his times are improving at this point in the season. "Part of it had to be cut out. I am finally starting to pick my form up."

After Albers crossed in first and Gaerke and Roth followed in second and third, it became apparent it was a two-team race. Luke Barga, Austin Felice and Jon Albers placed fourth, sixth and seventh for Minster, followed by Blake Strickler and Aaron Bruns in 10th and 11th for the Panthers. Minster had an eight-point lead with one runner remaining for each squad. The title was locked up for the Wildcats when Aaron Huwer crossed the line in 14th place.

"I'm usually in the thick of it," described Huwer about the life of a fifth-place team runner. "It is easier for me to pick off individual runners than the guys at the front. I was passed in the last 800 meters today, but I took it back to save the point."

"Our fifth runner is a bit of a worry," admitted Parkway's Gaerke. "We are sitting good for districts, but we have to figure something out for regionals. We just missed out on going to the state meet last year, and we do not want to repeat that."

The Minster boys finished with 32 points, followed by Parkway with 62. Versailles, St. Henry and Coldwater followed with 86, 125 and 137 points, respectively.

The high school girls' race looked very similar to the previous two years. Minster's Emma Watcke reached the finish line all alone with a time of 18:55, 31 seconds ahead of teammate Kaitlynn Albers. The Wildcats also placed Mackenzie Bohman fourth, Gwendolyn Meiring fifth and Madeline Magato seventh for a team score of 19 points, well ahead of Coldwater (80 points), Versailles (93 points) and Fort Recovery (111 points). For good measure, Minster runners also placed eigth, 10th, 11th and 14th.

It was Minster's 30th team title in the 35 years of the event.

Wildcat coach Jesse Magoto noted the great run by fourth-place finiher Mackenzie Bohman.

"Today I felt really good. Since it was cold I stayed relaxed," said Bohman.

Bohman also noted that the Minster team had to battle against Fort Recovery's Chloe Will, who finished third with a time of 19:31. "It is good for us to see other girls there. It definitely pushes us."

Will's time was close to her personal career best she set as a sophomore at the MAC meet.

"The weather helped me, I like the cooler temperatures," explained Will.

Chloe seemed less concerned with her individual performance than with the team results.

I am hoping next week to qualify for regionals with the entire team."

In the junior high races, Minster's Daniel Watcke won with a time of 11:03, 41 seconds ahead of the next finisher. Minster edged out New Bremen by a score of 36-45.

The top girls' individual was Maggie Hemmelgarn, whose time of 12:06 was 20 seconds faster than the rest of the field. Minster's team score of 26 points easily outdistanced Fort Recovery's score of 65.

All the local teams except for Versailles will be in district competition on Saturday at Ottawa. Versailles travels to Cedarville University for its district meet.