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St. Henry's Rileigh Baumer, seated center, signed a national letter of intent on Wednesday to run track and cross country at the University of Saint Francis. Seated with her are her parents, Kim and Matt, and standing are St. Henry head track coach Matt Thobe and distance coach Mitchell Schulze, Saint Francis coach Brendon Moody, St. Henry assistant distance coach Aaren Hemmelgarn and head cross country coach Angie Wendel.
ST. HENRY - St. Henry's Rileigh Baumer will be continuing her running career in the NAIA, signing a national letter of intent on Wednesday to join the track and cross country programs at the University of Saint Francis located in Fort Wayne.
Baumer said she was looking for a team similar to the one at St. Henry, and she found it with the Cougars.
"I talked to some of the girls there, and it felt like I was talking to my own team at home," she said. "It was weirdly so similar. Coach (Brendon) Moody's also very similar to the coaches here. It's like they picked it up and moved it to Saint Francis."
Moody, who was the Fort Recovery track and cross country coach before spending time as an assistant at Tiffin, said he got to talk to Baumer at the Mercer County cross country meet at the start of the season.
Early in the fall, she went up to Fort Wayne for a visit that solidified her decision.
"It was super calm, and that's something that I wanted," she said. "It's like home. Everything that I wanted was there, and the PT (physical therapy) program and the exercise science program that I'm going into is excellent as well."
Moody noted that Baumer's strong academics helped make her a good fit for Saint Francis, with the women's team perennially Academic All-Americans.
"I know that she used to play softball, therefore, not being a year-round runner, that's something that's appealing to me," he said. "Knowing there's some more upside in that aspect - once we get her training year-round in a sport-specific sense, her potential should skyrocket."
As for Moody, Baumer said his positive approach reminded her of the Redskins' staff.
"I think he reminds me of (distance coach) Mitchell Schulze - their energy's just so, like, up," she said. "They're both super positive, chipper, and I can talk to them super easy, without any hesitations."
Baumer ran three years with the Redskins' varsity cross country team, including on a state tournament team in 2021. In Obetz, she led the team with a time of 19:22.19, finishing 23rd overall.
"I was super proud of myself," she said, "because it showed me that I could do something that I didn't think I would've done earlier."
In track, she runs the 800-meter race, finishing fourth in the Midwest Athletic Conference last year, and a leg of the 4x800 relay, which went to regionals and finished eighth.
With the Cougars, Moody said she'll likely run a variety of races in her first indoor and outdoor season.
"My biggest thing is finding a fit for them, where they feel comfortable," he said. "Freshman year, we'll probably have her dabble in a little bit of everything - middle distance, distance - and see where she fits in best and enjoys herself. Not trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, that sort of thing."
For the spring, Baumer hopes to help the 4x800 team get back to regionals or move on to state.
Moody, whose official title is director of track and field/cross country, will be joined by Kris Hart, who was hired as the head track and field coach in September. Moody started at Saint Francis in the fall, and in his first year, he had one runner, graduate student Alex Ebetino, finish as an NAIA All-American.
