Clean Sweep!

KENTON - While the Celina girls were beginning to celebrate their sixth straight Western Buckeye League girls track title after the 4x400-meter relay, the Bulldog boys were figuring out what needed to be done to win their own title in the boys' 4x400.

A win wasn't required. The Bulldogs just needed to have at least one place between them and Elida at the finish.

Celina finished third and Elida took fifth, giving the Bulldog boys their first league crown since 2011 and allowing the school to sweep the team titles for the first time since 1997.

"It made me a little nervous," said Celina coach Eric Wagner, who claimed both the boys' and girls' Coach of the Year plaques. "Girls did a lot of good things, especially in the distance. Lauren McDonough, Lauren Jackson and Sara Wenning iced it.

"I knew it was going to be close (in the boys' race). We were up after Ethan Ly and Hunter Lynch picked up five points in the 3,200. We were up five going into the 4x4. I knew Elida's Sam Quaintance (the final runner of their relay) was a real good runner (having won the 400 dash). I told the guys we had to be third to win it, and we were third to win it."

The last lap was crucial as Kyle Flaute handed off to Austin Hines with Celina right around third place. While Shawnee went from fourth to first in the first 200 meters of the lap, Celina was staying firmly in third as Elida kept creeping.

"I was all jittery before we started," Hines said. "I knew I had to go. I sprinted the whole thing. We got to the last 100 (meters), something just clicked and I just flew. I kept going. It was crazy."

Hines made a mad-dash to the finish, giving Celina third place with a time of 3:39.26. Elida faded back to fifth in 3:34.60. The four-point difference between third and fifth was enough for Celina to pull away with 96 points to Elida's 88 to claim the title.

The Bulldog boys won just one championship on the day as Tyler Ross added the discus title to the shot put he had won on Wednesday. Ross finished with a top effort of 155-4. Teammate Ian Hawkins added a third-place showing.

"It's amazing. I never thought I would win two titles my junior year," Ross said. "I just knew what I had to do to win and I did it."

The Celina boys plugged along picking up points where needed. Conner Mills was second in the 110 hurdles and third in the 300 hurdles. Blake Germann added a runner-up finish in the 400 and a sixth-place finish in the 200. Freshman Ethan Ly came up big in the 3,200 with a fourth-place finish to go along with Hunter Lynch's sixth-place showing.

The highlight of the girls' competition was the battle in the distance events between Celina's Lauren McDonough, St. Marys' Kelly Wilker and Wapakoneta's Allie Zofkie. In the 1,600, McDonough jumped out in front and never looked back, winning the metric mile in 5:10.86, just under seven seconds ahead of Zofkie and nearly 16 seconds ahead of third-place Wilker.

In the 3,200, the battle was between defending champion Wilker and McDonough. As the two came around each lap, the distance between McDonough and Wilker continued to widen. At the finish, McDonough captured the race in 11:25.45, nearly 21 seconds ahead of Wilker.

"I learned the last three years to have fun with (the races) and not put too much pressure on myself," said McDonough, who also ran a leg of the winning 4x800 on Wednesday. "It was awesome to end my senior year like this.

"I didn't look back a whole lot (in the 3,200). I just kept running my pace."

Key points also came from Lauren Jackson and Sara Wenning, who went 1-2 in the 800.

For Paige Sutter, the goal for her was not only to defend her league title in the shot put, but also take one last stab at breaking the 29-year old school record held by Amy Poor.

Sutter broke it twice.

The first came the prelims with a heave of 43-3 1/4, three-quarters of an inch ahead of Poor's 43-2 1/2 set in 1988. While that mark would have given her the league title, her last throw of the finals was the topping, measuring out at 43-4 1/4 to claim the new mark.

"Honestly, I wanted the record, but I didn't think I could do it today," said Sutter, who came within 1 1/4 inches of matching the league record of 43-5 1/2 set by St. Marys' Mekayla Breland in 2011. "Whenever I was in the weight room, I worked hard and would think about (breaking the record). That was my mindset: to get better and better. Now I've finally got it.

"I felt pretty good. Normally I have a lot of nerves, but not this time. I was relaxed."

Alyssa Hoyng finished second in the 300 hurdles to add to the Celina scoring.

St. Marys finished seventh in the boys' standings and eighth in the girls standings.

Sean Perry tied for third in the high jump with a top effort of 5-8 while teammate Seth Vorhees was sixth with a leap of 5-8. Demarcus Fountain added a third-place showing in the 200.

The postseason begins next week. Celina travels to Frost-Kalnow Stadium in Tiffin for the Division I meet on Wednesday and next Friday while St. Marys travels to Defiance for Division II competition on Wednesday and Friday.

WBL Track and Field Meet Finals:

Results from the final day of the Western Buckeye League Track and Field Championships at Robinson Field in Kenton

BOYS
Team Standings

1. Celina 96, 2. Elida 88, 3. Defiance 81, 4. Van Wert 75, 5. Shawnee 70, 6. Wapakoneta 42, 7. St. Marys 29, 8, Kenton 20, 9. Bath 13, 9. Ottawa-Glandorf 13.
Results (Top six earning All-WBL)

High Jump: Blake Henry (VW) 6-3; 2. KeShawn Spivey (E) 5-10; 3. Kyle Huffman (W) 5-8; 3. Baylen Stinson (E) 5-8; 3. Sean Perry (SM) 5-8; 6. Seth Vorhees (SM) 5-8.

Discus: 1. Tyler Ross (C) 155-4; 2. Austin Clay (VW) 154-6; 3. Ian Hawkins (C) 139-6; 4. John Bourne (W) 136-7; Marcus VanMeter (SH) 131-3; 6. Ke'Juan Frazier (E) 130-4.

110 Hurdles: 1. Xavier Gilkey (E) 15.65; 2. Conner Mills (C) 15.93; 3. Connor Williams (D) 15.98; 4. KeShawn Spivey (E) 16.04, 5. Brandon Hernandez (VW) 16.05; 6. Tristen Meyer (W) 16.27.

100 Dash: 1. Christian Ford (SH) 11.11; 2. Jayvion Daniels (SH) 11.23; 3. Chris Deardorff (K) 11.29; 4. De'Angelo Woods (E) 11.30; 5. Demarcus Fountain (SM) 11.33; 6. Austin Brown (B) 11.67.

4x200 Relay: 1. Elida 1:30.98; 2. Shawnee 1:31.11; 3. Celina 1:32.30; 4. St. Marys 1:33.68; 5. Ottawa-Glandorf 1:34.47; 6. Van Wert 1:34.66.

1;600 Run: 1. Bryce Mendenhall (D) 4:25.20; 2. Jesse Schlatter (D) 4:28.08; 3. Jordan Bowers (W) 4:36.53; 4. Jon Wahlie (SH) 4:38.97; 5. Will Zofkie (W) 4:41.75; 6. Brent Siefker (O-G) 4:45.24.

4x100 Relay: 1. Elida 44.30; 2. St. Marys 44.68; 3. Celina 45.06; 4. Kenton 45.82; 5. Defiance 46.13; 6. Shawnee 1:12.36.

400 Dash: 1. Sam Quaintance (E) 49.77; 2. Blake Germann (C) 52.0; 3. Hasan Williams (SH) 52.93; 4. Alex Naton (D) 52.42; 5. Mark Thomas (D) 53.46; 6. Jayden Pullen (E) 54.03.

300 Hurdles: 1. Brandon Hernandez (VW) 40.62, 2. Xavier Gilkey (E) 41.12; 3. COnner Mills (C) 41.22; 4. Chase Stephens (C) 42.62; 5. Ryan Thompson (W) 43.02; 6. Connor Williams (D) 43.11.

800 Run: 1. Jesse Schlatter (D) 1:57.39; 2. Ben Wischmeyer (O-G) 1:59.94; 3. Dylan Lautzenheiser (VW) 2:03.07; 4. Bryce Mendenhall (D) 2:04.50; 5. Thane Cowan (VW) 2:05.58; 6. Aidan Kruse (E) 2:06.11.

200 Dash: 1. Christian Ford (SH) 22.31; 2. Jayvion Daniels (SH) 22.74; 3. Demarcus Fountain (SM) 22.78; 4. Chris Deardorff (K) 23.46; 5. Austin Hines (C) 23.47; 6. Blake Germann (C) 24.22.

3;200 Run: 1. Zach Lockmiller (D) 9:59.05; 2. Hayden Howerton (D) 10:00.01; 3. Will Zofkie (W) 10:27.35; 4. Ethan Ly (C) 10:33.62; 5. Gage Chiles (VW) 10:39.84; 6. Hunter Lynch (C) 10:46.70.

4x400 Relay: 1. Shawnee 3:29.05; 2. Van Wert 3:29.12; 3. Celina 3:29.26; 4. Defiance 3:29.36; 5. Elida 3:34.60; 6. Wapakoneta 3:46.04.

GIRLS
Team Standings

1. Celina 107, 2. Defiance 83, 3. Wapakoneta 68, 4. Elida 56, 5. Van Wert 52; 6. Shawnee 50, 7. Ottawa-Glandorf 43, 8. St. Marys 29, 9 Kenton 22, 10. Bath 16.
Results (Top six earning All-WBL honors)

Long Jump: 1. Megan Braun (VW) 16-11; 2. Ma'kayla Allen (D) 16-0; 3. Shyah Wheeler (E) 15-5; 4. Amanda Sahloff (O-G) 15-1 3/4; 5. Kelly Moeder (C) 14-10; 6. Caitlyn Renner 14-6 3/4.

Shot Put: 1. Paige Sutter (C) 43-4 1/4; 2. Tabatha Saam (VW) 38-1 3/4; 3. Natalie Wichman (D) 36-4 1/2, 4. Alex Stambaugh (D) 36-1 1/4; 5. Shania Jones (SM) 35-6 1/4; 6. DeAsia Smith (SH) 34-6 1/2.

Pole Vault: 1. Sidney Sutton (W) 10-8; 2. Lauren Howard (D) 10-4; 3. Cienna Kuhn (E) 10-0; 4. Kendall Gilmore (C) 10-0; 5. Kayana Cook (SH) 9-0, 6. Brooklyn Price (SM) 9-0.

100 Hurdles: 1. Melissa Knott (O-G) 15.13; 2. Megan Smith (W) 15.45; 3. Kendra Wellman (D) 15.96; 4. Ally Angstmann (SM) 16.08; 5. Alyssa Hoyng (C) 16.19; 6. Peyton Fleming (VW) 17.25.

100 Dash: 1. Kylie Lewis (E) 12.84; 2. Elyse Kelly (SH) 12.99; 3. Ma'Kayla Allen (D) 13.12; 4. Kelsey (B) 13.15; 5. Kirsten Siefker (O-G) 13.28; 6. Amanda Sahloff (O-G) 13.40.

4x200 Relay: 1. Van Wert 1:47.92; 2. Shawnee 1:48.35; 3. Elida 1:49.18; 4. Wapakoneta 1:50.22, 5. Defiance 1:50.89; 6. Ottawa-Glandorf 1:50.95.

1;600 Run: 1. Lauren McDonough (C) 5:10.86; 2. Allie Zofkie (W) 5:17.35; 3. Kelly Wilker (SM) 5:26.05; 4. Shay Soukup (D) 5:31.89; 5. Paige Schneider (W) 5:33.19; 6. Emma Lutz (C) 5:33.98.

4x100 Relay: 1. Elida 51.62; 2. Ottawa-Glandorf 51.89; 3. Shawnee 52.21; 4. Kenton 52.76, 5. St. Marys 1:00.40; DNF. Van Wert.

400 Dash: 1. Faith Baxter (SH) 59.38; 2. Hannah Holland (K) 1:01.24; 3. Sidney Sutton (W) 1:01.62; 4. London Moening (D) 1:01.71; 5. Ashtyn Phlipot (C) 1:02.72; 6. Maggie Rump (O-G) 1:03.69.

300 Hurdles: 1. Melissa Knott (O-G) 48.12; 2. Alyssa Hoyng (C) 48.51; 3. Kendra Wellman (D) 49.03; 4. Ally Angstmann (SM) 49.19; 5. Paige Osborn (K) 49.55; 6. Claire Burton (W) 51.39.

800 Run: 1. Lauren Jackson (C) 2:21.34; 2. Sara Wenning (C) 2:24.74; 3. Shay Soukup (D) 2:25.67; 4. Emma Kentner (W) 2:27.68; 5. Cassidy Meyers (VW) 2:27.68; 6. Lexie Marshall (SH) 2:27.79.

200 Dash: 1. Kelsey Wallace (B) 26.70; 2. Kylie Lewis (E) 26.74; 3. Megan Braun (VW) 26.77; 4. Elyse Kelly (SH) 27.09; 5. Olivia Kentner (W) 27.14; 6. Ma'kayla Allen (D) 27.48.

3;200 Run: 1. Lauren McDonough (C) 11:25.45; 2. Kelly Wilker (SM) 11:46.23;; 3. Ashley Weidenhamer (D) 11:54.59; 4. Maggie Lenhart (D) 12:24.33; 5. Paige Schneider (W) 12:31.33; 6. Emma Deters (B) 12:42.51.

4x400 Relay: 1. Van Wert 4:08.20; 2. Wapakoneta 4:12.06; 3. Defiance 4:13.71; 4. Celina 4:14.96; 5. Ottawa-Glandorf 4:18.37; 6. Elida 4:20.49.