Saturday, May 15th, 2021
Wildcats sweep MAC titles
By Tom Haines
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard
Minster's Bryan Falk beats out Patrick Covert of New Knoxville and Jesse Meyer of Coldwater in the 100-meter dash in the Midwest Athletic Conference track and field championships at Barrenbrugge Athletic Park in Fort Recovery on Friday.
FORT RECOVERY - Minster swept the Midwest Athletic Conference track and field championships at Barrenbrugge Athletic Park in Fort Recovery on Friday.
The Minster girls came in tied for the lead and pulled away for the win, clearing runner-up Versailles by 27.5 points. The Minster boys beat second-place Marion Local by 37.5 points after entering in fourth place, with wins in the 110-meter hurdles, the 200 hurdles and the 4x400 relay on Friday to vault them into the lead.
"The wind was down, but they just ran their hearts out," Minster boys coach Larry Topp said. "Every one of our relays ran a PR and almost every one of the races, they ran a PR. So it was a fun day, and it took every bit of it to come away with a win. Marion and Versailles were right there waiting for us the whole time, so if we faltered, we weren't going to win today. That's how it should be."
For the girls, the Wildcats got a pair of individual victories from Ella Boate in the 1,600 and the 3,200 and a second-place finish from Chaney Cedarleaf in the 3,200. Maggie Hemmelgarn won the 800, while the 4x200 and 4x400 earned second-place finishes.
"Maggie Hemmelgarn, that was big, as a freshman for her to win," Minster girls' coach Jessie Magoto said. "Chaney, for us, going 1-2 in the two-mile, that was really cool. Placing in both hurdling events, that was very good too."
Jenna Heuker had a chance at another first-place finish for the Wildcats in the 300 hurdles, coming into the final stretch neck-and-neck with Marion's Sam Hoelscher. Hoelscher cleared the final hurdle, Heuker hit the top, and it slowed her down just a little as Hoelscher took a narrow victory.
On the boys side, Alex Albers won the 800 and the 1,600, Bryan Falk won the 100, 200 and the 400, and the Wildcats won the 4x200 relay. Russell Heid won the pole vault for Minster in the lone field event on Friday.
The Wildcats earned another second-place finish in the 3,200, where Jack Grieshop led most of the way. Parkway's Blake Strickler, who also earned a second-place finish in the 1,600, wasn't even in the top five until the fourth lap. By the sixth he had run Grieshop down, taking the lead shortly thereafter and holding on for a 1.25-second win.
"That's how he likes to run, that's what he likes doing," Parkway coach Nathan Rupp said of Strickler. "I'm excited for next week, to see what he's going to do for districts."
Host Fort Recovery finished fifth on the girls side and eighth on the boys side, with the girls earning second-place finishes in the 4x200 and the 4x800 after picking up a win in the long jump by Mara Pearson on Tuesday.
Freshmen Trevor Heitkamp and Ellie Will earned third-place finishes in the 3,200, with Will running with the leaders the whole way. She came in 16 seconds behind Boate and 1.26 seconds behind Cedarleaf.
"She went out with the intention of just sitting on their shoulders, and she did exactly that," Fort Recovery coach Christy Diller said. "It worked out great to her advantage. As a freshman, to be able to do that, that's amazing. Those Minster girls can run, we know that, and not too many kids can hang with them, so it's exciting for me to see that from her as a freshman."
The Marion girls got an individual win from Hoelscher in the 300 hurdles to go with Molly Winner's victory in the shot put on Tuesday, while the boys got a win from Ben Heitkamp in the 110 hurdles and a win in the 4x100 relay.
Coldwater got wins from the girls 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400 relays, while Tyler Schwieterman earned a win in the 300 hurdles. Jesse Meyer won the high jump and the long jump for the Cavaliers on Tuesday.
New Bremen, which got a win in the high jump from Elli Roetgerman on Tuesday, picked up a win from Tess Lane in the 100 hurdles. St. Henry's Ava Stammen came in second in the long jump on Tuesday, while the boys' 4x200 and 4x400 earned third-place finishes.
The Division III district tournament is May 20-22.
"If you settle with what we just did today, we'll be done after a week or two and then we'll go home," Topp said. "These guys aren't set up that way."
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard
Ella Boate holds off Coldwater's Haley Alig and Fort Recovery's Natalie Brunswick in the 1,600-meter run in the Midwst Athletic Conference track and field championships at Barrenbrugge Athletic Park in Fort Recovery on Friday.
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard
New Bremen's Tess Lane wins the 100-meter hurdles over Marion Local's Sam Hoelscher and Minster's Jenna Heuker in the Midwest Athletic Conference track and field championships at Barrenbrugge Athletic Park in Fort Recovery on Friday.
