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The 1996 Fort Recovery boys cross country team won the Division III state championship and won every meet it entered that season. Members of the team are, seated from left, Nathan Ontrop, Matt Roessner, Scott Will, Matt Heitkamp, Jason Stammen and Phil Ranly. Standing are Eric VanSkyock, Steve Roessner, Travis Heitkamp and head coach Carl Moeller. Photo courtesy of Matt Roessner.
The bond between teammates remains strong over the years.
For the members of Fort Recovery's 1996 Division III state boys cross country championship team, that connection remains strong despite the miles that separate them.
That will be on display this weekend as members of the 1996 team travel to Fortress Obetz to watch the Indians' girls cross country team and boys' standout Trevor Heitkamp compete in this year's state meet.
The 1996 team dominated running that fall, winning every meet it entered and becoming the first - and as of this date only - Midwest Athletic Conference boys cross country team to win the state championship. On the championship banner inside Fort Site Fieldhouse, that feat is honored with "162-0" - signifying the total number of teams that finished behind them that season.
The Indians had reached state for the first time as a team in 1995, finishing ninth.
"We were super happy to be there," said Matt Roessner, a junior on the 1996 team and currently an assistant coach for the Fort Recovery cross country team. "We felt pretty good about (ninth). I don't know if it was on the way home or shortly after, Phil Ranly was like, 'Guys, we can win state next year.' We just kind of laughed at him and were like, 'Dude, we're not even close.' Phil was like, 'We just have to practice.' "
"We were all pretty excited to make it because it was the first time for the school," said Ranly. "Coach (Carl) Moeller was there at the right time and place. He gave us freedom. He set up a plan and we trusted what he was talking about. The uniqueness was everyone had fun and was committed to it."
Moeller, who took over the program in 1993, had a feeling this group could reach state.
"(First year) we were 13th out of 14 teams and they were happy to have beat a team," said Moeller. "It's about improving and doing the best your can. They said they wanted to win state - they were young - and I said, 'That's something you have to work hard at.' "
After a strong spring track run, the core members of what would be the 1996 team dedicated themselves to the fall season, gathering at Matt Heitkamp's house and running a three-mile loop around the village during the evening when it was cooler. Sometimes Matt's brother Rick Heitkamp, who finished eighth at state in 1994 before going on to run at the University of Dayton, would join them.
"We would meet at Matt Heitkamp's and just run," said Ranly "I look back at that as one of the defining moments in my life."
The team was bolstered by Nathan Ontrop, who switched to cross country for 1996 after a broken wrist the season before ended his football career.
"It took two surgeries, and the following year it was advised that playing football wasn't a good thing for me to do," said Ontrop. "My close friends were on the cross country team and I was on the track team. I was good at running distance, so it was a natural thing to run cross country. Coach Moeller (who also coached track), he'd nonchalantly have us run five miles. My friends would do the five-mile loop and for me it was like, 'Oh my goodness! I never ran five miles in my life.' It was a different thing."
As Moeller ran with the team during practices, he noticed the improvement through the preseason and season.
"When I started running with them, I told them to keep up with me if you can. If you fall off my pace, don't worry about it," said Moeller. "I was pretty much way ahead of them early in the season. All of the sudden, they were keeping up with me through the three-mile mark and four-mile mark. Eventually, a couple - Phil and Matt Roessner and later Matt Heitkamp - started keeping up with me the whole time. At some point, they asked, 'Can we run faster?' and I said sure, but we're not going to overpace. They started pulling ahead of me and at some point, I couldn't keep up with them."
The first "Aha!" moment came early in the season.
"At our third meet of the year (the Celina Rotary Invitational), we ran against Anna (the 1995 Division III state champs) and we beat them," said Roessner. "That was our first hint of 'Oh, man. We're pretty good!' "
"We were like 'Holy Cow! It's paying off,' " said Matt Heitkamp. "We didn't know how we would be until we beat Anna that day. That put everything in perspective, like we'd have a shot this year."
At the MAC meet at Coldwater, the Indians cruised to the title, scoring 20 points and finishing 47 points ahead of runner-up Delphos St. John's. Just over a week later, the team returned to Coldwater and captured the district title.
Fort Recovery then went south to Troy for the regional, where despite what Roessner and Ranly said wasn't their best performance, they won to advance to state.
"We didn't show up as well as the other races," said Ranly.
Heading into the meet, the Indians had a chip on their shoulders thanks to the coaches' rankings.
"We were ranked all year until the final rankings came out, I'm not sure if it was after district or regional, and they ranked us second to Seneca East (the 1995 state runner-up)," said Roessner. "We'd all look at the rankings when we'd bring in the paper to school. We were like 'No way!' We were pretty confident, mainly in the team and not necessarily individually."
Each team had key frontrunners at the race that was held at Scioto Downs: Roessner and Ranly for Fort Recovery, and Vincent Fries, the state individual champion in 1995, and Aaron Hay for Seneca East, with Fries and Hay each finishing in the top six.
Roessner was the first Indian to finish, taking seventh (fifth for team scoring purposes), with Ranly 15th. Matt Heitkamp was 16th, a place ahead of East's Steve Spotts.
The turning point came when Ontrop finished 21st for Fort Recovery, 40 spots ahead of the fourth Seneca East runner.
"Those number three, number four and number five runners is where the bulk of the points are," said Ontrop. "You care where your top runners are, but you also care where your 3-4-5 runners are."
That gap meant the Indians didn't have to push another runner across until Fort Recovery's fifth runner Scott Will placed 77th with two East runners coming ahead of him. Travis Heitkamp finished 81st and Jason Stammen placed 118th.
"We were standing there - me, Phil and Matt Heitkamp - and just looking and willing (Will, Travis Heitkamp and Stammen) to finish," said Roessner. "We were nervous."
When the scores came through, Fort Recovery was first with 84 points, with Seneca East finishing with 98 points for another runner-up finish.
"We had these big purple warmups that we wore," said Roessner. "At the finish, we're putting them on - it was like in the 30s - but Phil refused to get dressed until we knew if we won. We're walking across the horse track. We're in warmups and Phil's in his tank top and headband."
"The thing I remember most of all was the joy of Matt Heitkamp," said Ranly. "He was a senior. We put him right at the top of the podium and he was hugging that trophy. It came full circle to the thought of 'We could do it,' to 'We did it!' It's a pretty deep thing."
The team has remained in contact through emails, video calls and social media. After Saturday's state meet, several of the runners will compete on Sunday in a 20-kilometer trail race at Alum Creek State Park in Lewis Center.
"I drive the bus for cross country, so we'll go down Friday, then I'll drive back (after the state meet), go to Mass and turn around and zip back to Columbus to hang out with the guys," said Roessner.
"This may be the first time all five of us (Roessner, Ranly, Matt Heitkamp, Ontrop and Will) have run a race together since 1996," said Ontrop. "Roessner's probably in the best shape of the group. I haven't done too much running recently."
The continued bond is what Moeller is most proud of after the title.
"They had a great connecting relationship being from a small town community," said Moeller, who was invited to run the 20K but declined due to injury. "It just grew exponentially."
"The miles we put in together and learning to work together. That's what it was all about," said Matt Heitkamp, whose daughter Grace, a junior at Olentangy Liberty, will be running in the Division I state meet later on Saturday. "As great as winning state was, creating that bond, that brotherhood, that's what it was all about."
