'Riders sweep team titles at Auglaize County Meet

ST. MARYS - In 2017, then-sophomore Noah Tobin won the boys individual Auglaize County Meet championship and St. Marys swept the high school team titles.

All of those things happened again on Tuesday.

A year after finishing runner-up, Tobin reclaimed the Auglaize County throne and the Roughriders posted a clean sweep in the team standings.

Last year, it was St. Marys' boys and New Bremen girls winning Auglaize high school championships. This year, the Roughriders cruised to a team title with only 23 points. Wapakoneta was a distant runner-up with 61 points.

The Roughrider girls, meanwhile, edged the defending champion Cardinals by a 41-44 margin.

"We're led by several seniors and that always helps," St. Marys Head Coach Rob Cisco said. "That's something I don't get every year at St. Marys, but we've got good senior leadership this year. That just makes your job as a coach way easier."

Two years ago, Tobin won his first Auglaize championship in a time of 17:57.54. A year after taking runner-up behind Isaac Webb, Tobin crushed the winning time from his sophomore season - completing the course in 17:38.

Cisco saw a noticeable difference in Tobin, too.

"He was not happy with his track season on his times, and he's come out this summer firing and knowing that the only way he's going to get better is through hard work," coach Cisco said. "He's a different runner than he was last spring. I'm excited for him.

"I have not had a kid work this hard in my life. I've made my practices harder, he adjusts to them, pushes through them, puts in so many miles and never says no. There's never a workout he ever backs out of."

Tobin was all smiles after the win. He was more proud of the team performance, though.

"Feels pretty good, but it's not just about me - it's about our team and our coach, Rob Cisco," Tobin said. "He's been a guy who we've kind of built around, not just basing workouts off of me. We've kind of gone with the 'we're going to do what the best guys do' mentality.

"It's all about the team this year," he added. "We've got really good runners coming up, young runners."

Roughrider runners claimed five of the first eight spots. Craig Stuttler was runner-up (18:26.58), Jordan Heitkamp placed fifth (19:08.08), Tyler Hisey seventh (19:26.65) and Robert Bayham eighth (19:31.96).

"Craig Stetler coming in second was huge for us," Cisco said. "He's a first-year sophomore. For a first-year runner, we were real pleased with that. That was a real good surprise for us."

Wapak's Grant Bauer (18:48.31) and Nate Metzger (18:52.04) placed third and fourth, respectively. New Bremen's Landin Boyle finished sixth (19:13.15. Rounding out the top 10 were St. Marys' Michel Crites (ninth, 19:33.98) and New Bremen's Patrick Bernhold (10th, 19:40.64).

New Bremen took third in the team standings with 71 points, Waynesfield-Goshen was fourth (88) and New Knoxville fifth (123).

The Cardinal girls defeated the Roughriders by a 16-point margin at last year's meet.

Those two teams again battled it out on Tuesday.

Eight of the top 10 runners in the girls race were from St. Marys or New Bremen. The lone exceptions were race winner Taylor Spencer of Waynesfield-Goshen (19:16.83) and third-place finisher Paige Schneider of Wapak (21:51.16).

St. Marys' Brianna Cisco was runner-up (21:32.15), Lauren Cisco placed fourth (22:08.10), Ellen Schloemer sixth (22:39.72), Maria Jutte 11th (23:52.56) and Bianca Endres 19th (25:11.79).

New Bremen's top runner was Madison Cordonnier in fifth (22:09.73). Lily Rindler was eighth (23:00.99, Alayna Thieman ninth (23:18.61), Jessica Fledderjohann 15th (24.33.66) and Lily Lennartz 16th (24:39.10).

"We're battling injuries on the girls side, you know, Rosie Saunders, whose a senior and has run really good in the preseason, has got a shin-splint issue going on, and a couple of the other girls were coming off some cold, flu-like symptoms," coach Cisco said. "Not to make any excuses - they won, they persevered. But we had to work hard to get that tonight."

Wapakoneta placed third in the team standings (64 points) with Waynesfield-Goshen fourth (90 points).   

New Bremen's Chloe Homan won the junior high girls race in a time of 13.35.09. The race featured 22 runners and just two schools fielded complete teams. The Cardinals beat the Redskins by a margin of 16 points to 62.

St. Marys' Seth Brandt ran to victory in the two-mile boys race with a mark of 11:41.19. The Roughriders were team champs with a score of 29.