By Compiled by Ryan Hines With league cross country meets coming up in the next several weeks, area teams started posting lower times at several area meets.
A number of area teams headed to the Van Wert Reservoir for the annual Van Wert County Invitational, this year hosted by Crestview. In the larger school Red Division, Coldwater tied with Van Wert for low points in the boys race with 85 points, but Van Wert took the tiebreaker on the sixth-runner. Cavalier David Wilker kept up his dominating season in taking the race title with a time of 16:28 while Cavs teammate Dusty Kuess was fifth in a time of 17:21. St. Marys placed 13th in the standings as Jason Durkee paced the Roughriders with a ninth-place finish. In the girls' Red Division, Coldwater placed fourth with 105 points with St. Marys 10th with 228. Ashley Kanney was the highest Cavalier crossing the finish line taking 10th. The smaller-school Blue Division was paced by Minster. The Wildcats won the girls meet with 29 points, 24 better than runner-up Liberty-Benton. New Bremen was ninth in the standings. Bernadette Burke paced the Wildcats with a race win in 18:48. Brigitte Sherman was fourth with Katie Dahlinghaus fifth. Amber Niekamp paced New Bremen with an 18th-place showing. The Minster boys took second with 81 points as East Canton took first place with 67 points. New Bremen was sixth. Kregg Olding paced the Wildcats with a seventh-place finish and teammate Joby Stechschulte was 10th. Minster and Coldwater finished 1-2 in the boys junior varsity race. Minster's Tyler Richard took the race in a time of 18:38. Brock Timmerman paced Coldwater with a fourth-place showing. Minster took first in the junior high girls race with Coldwater fifth, Celina sixth and New Bremen 10th. Averie Bornhorst won the race in 11:55. Minster was fourth in the junior high boys race. New Bremen was sixth, St. Marys 14th, Celina 18th and Coldwater 19th. Jack Olding was the top local finisher in sixth place. Redskins strong at Brookville St. Henry captured the boys White Division title at the Brookville Invitational on Saturday, beating out Dayton Christian 45-67 to take the team title. The solid Redskin pack-running kept up its success rate as Doug Ranly took third and Dan Rex took fourth. Kris Schalter took ninth with Dillan Schulze and Kyle Rinderle taking 15th and 16th. In the girls White Division, St. Henry placed third and Fort Recovery was fourth in the team standings. Oakwood captured the meet in edging Brookville, 42-48. The Indians' Mindy Vogel captured the race title in 19:59. Kendra Delzeith and Beth Hemmelgarn paced St. Henry with a ninth- and 10th-place finish, respectively. In the larger-school Blue Division, Celina's boys finished a distant second to state power Loveland. Celina had 56 points with Loveland scoring just 17 points. Isaac Niekamp paced the Bulldogs with a seventh-place showing while Luke Bonvillian took ninth with Chris Johnson taking 11th. The Celina girls took fifth in their meet as Loveland got the sweep by scoring just 20 points. Melissa Roth's 11th-place showing was the first in for Celina while teammate Heather Petrie took 19th. Tigers rule the 'Sewer' Versailles hosted its annual invitational, lovingly called the "Tour de Sewer" since it's run near the water treatment plant in Versailles. The Lady Tigers captured the high school girls meet with an impressive 23 points. Marion Local, the only other local school competing, placed third with 94 points. Mary Prakel of Versailles took the meet title with a time of 20:48.7 while Tigers teammate Taylor Huffman took fifth with Caitlin Liette sixth, Kristen Schulte seventh, Katie Mestemaker eighth and Valerie Barga ninth. The Flyers were paced by Stacy Evers' 20th-place showing and Kristen Homan's 21st-place effort. In the boys race, Versailles was third and Marion fourth in the standings as Russia captured the meet with 52 points. Jordan Schmackers of Marion was the first local runner across in sixth place. Casey Berger led Versailles with a 10th-place effort. GIRLS SOCCER Bulldogs back on winning track Several days after losing to Elida in a key league match, Celina rebounded by shutting out Bellefontaine 3-0 in Logan County on Saturday, improving the Bulldogs to 7-2-1 on the season. Allison Braun led off the scoring with a direct kick score from 19 yards out. Shelbi Nation scored the second goal unassisted from 12 yards out with the final goal coming with three seconds left in the match on a 25-yarder from Courtney McKirnan. The Celina defense shined again as keeper Laura Kuhn needed to make just two saves to preserve the shutout. Celina is at Bath today before coming home on Thursday to face Ottawa-Glandorf. Roughriders get shutout St. Marys improved to 6-3 with a 3-0 win at Indian Lake on Saturday. Sam Davenport had two goals for the Roughriders with Katie Heitkamp providing the other score for St. Marys. Assists were credited to Kaysha Dietz, Chelsea Waterman and Sarah Wolfe. St. Marys hosts Shawnee today at West Elementary. VOLLEYBALL Indians fall to Rockets Fort Recovery hosted the Division III top-ranked Anna Rockets on Saturday at Fort Site Fieldhouse, losing in three games by scores of 25-18, 25-17 and 25-12. Tiff Gaerke paced the Indians with 14 kills and four blocks. Lauren Wenning and Kinsey Wenning added nine kills each while Abby Niekamp contributed 26 assists and four blocks. Cavs beat Indians Coldwater improved to 7-5 on the season with a three-game win over Shawnee at The Palace on Saturday. The Cavaliers won with scores of 25-11. 25-18 and 25-23. Lindsey Bruns and Karla Niekamp led the Cavaliers with 11 kills each. Tiffany Uhlenhake had seven aces with Marla Hess setting up the attack with 28 assists. Wildcats win own invite Minster beat Lincolnview, Wapakoneta and New Bremen on the way to the Minster Invitational volleyball tournament title. The Wildcats cruised past Lincolnview 25-19 and 25-7 then drilled Wapak 25-16 and 25-22 before slipping past the rival Cardinals in three games, 25-27, 25-17 and 25-23. Nikki Wente and Lauren Ranly were named to the all-tournament team for the Wildcats while New Bremen's Stephanie Winner and Michelle Griesdorn were also selected. |