Saturday, May 18th, 2024
Flyers, Wildcats win district
By Tom Haines
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Marion Local's Wesley Schoen runs behind Lincolnview's Conner Baldauf in the 400-meter dash at the Division III district meet at Spencerville on Friday.
SPENCERVILLE - The Marion Local boys and Minster girls repeated as district champions at the Division III tournament at Spencerville High School on Friday.
The Flyers led the way Friday with eight individuals advancing to the regional tournament, plus three more relay teams. The Wildcats, winning their fourth straight, sent seven individuals and three relays.
"Mostly we just want to qualify," Minster girls coach Jessie Magoto. "For the most part, it came out where we thought it would. … We had a few fifths that are going to be hard, but you're going to get that."
Marion continued to shine in the sprints. Justin Knouff won the 100 and qualified in the 200 along with Victor Hoelscher. Wesley Schoen took third in the 400 with Aiden Grieshop fourth.
The Flyers beat Allen East by 0.26 seconds in the 4x100 and over a second in the 4x200.
"We've settled in, been there for a week and a half or two weeks now," Marion coach Kyle Grabowski said of the relay lineups. "Those teams have been doing really well. They hold themselves to high expectations, and we kind of have to be like, 'Calm down - I know that wasn't our best time, but that was really good.'"
In the 4x400, Landon Arling stepped in at the last minute and had the Flyers in fourth after the first leg. Andrew Pohlman surged past New Bremen on the backstretch of the third leg to set up a three-way duel with Minster and Lincolnview on the final lap.
Conner Baldauf passed Minster's Jack Grieshop late in the backstretch to take first and held on. The top three teams were all within 0.53 seconds, with New Bremen in fourth.
"Landon Arling stepped up, ran that first leg for us and got it done," Grabowski said. "I think those are the three top 4x4s in the region, so that was really fun competition. We got to see some of our guys push themselves aggressively there."
Pohlman snagged third in the 300 hurdles, and Trey Goettemoeller took fourth in the 1,600.
In the discus, Jack Knapke was second behind Minster's Charlie Schmiesing, who threw 177 feet, 4 inches to win by over 11 feet.
The final spot went to Marion sophomore Eddie Poeppelman with a mark of 133-5. Grabowski said that Poeppelman didn't reset his PR, but managed to get enough for a regional berth.
"It was just a clutch performance," he said. "Some of those middle of the pack guys weren't throwing their best stuff out there today, but when push came to shove, he stepped up for it."
Marion beat Minster by seven points, 131-124.
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Minster's Jack Grieshop tries to pass Lincolnview's Maddox Norton in the 800, with teammate Ryan Halpin running behind. Grieshop and Halpin finished 1-2 to move on to the Troy regional.
The Wildcats sent seven individuals on: Schmiesing, Jack Grieshop (800, first; 1,600, second), Ryan Halpin (800, second), Max Knapke (300 hurdles, fourth), Nick Prenger (3,200, second), DJ Bensman (high jump, third) and Bo Dwenger (110 hurdles, fourth).
Dwenger beat Knapke for the fourth spot in the 110 hurdles, but stumbled early in the 300 hurdles and took eighth.
"Those two have been running together, so it would've been nice to see," Minster boys coach Larry Topp said. "But one of them might have knocked the other one out. That's probably what would've happened."
Topp moved Halpin from the 3,200 to the 800 with an eye on state times. Halpin ran a 1:57.23, and the switch allowed him to run in the 4x400, which Topp estimated made the team four seconds faster.
"His two-mile time, when he doesn't run anything else, is right around 9:55, I think," Topp said. "That's not going to get you much at state. His splits in the 4x800 have been around 1:57, and I thought if he can do that in the open, that may score at state."
Minster's girls beat Fort Recovery 132 2/3-94.
Riley Hagens was runner-up in pole vault on a tiebreaker and Josi Boate took fourth. Chaney Cedarleaf and Maggie Hemmelgarn were 1-2 in the final lap of the 1,600 before Fort Recovery's Natalie Brunswick made a late charge to drop them to second and third.
Cedarleaf won the 800 and Maria Niekamp was runner-up to Brunswick in the 3,200. Molly Brame took third in the 100 hurdles, where Marion's Grace Moeller remains undefeated on the year.
The Wildcats also won the 4x400, took second in the 4x200 and ran fourth in the 4x100.
"All our relays going on, that's big," Magoto said. "We'll have a lot of opportunities."
Freshman Claire Bohman won the 400, pulling away from New Knoxville's Brynn Egbert late, but the standings were shaken up after coaches called for a re-run. Instead of the buzzer used for the other events, the starter used a pistol for the 400, and some runners were slow to react.
Minster's Ava Stammen and St. Henry's Evie Gast, who were fifth and sixth the first time around, elected to run again at the end of the day. Stammen dropped to seventh with the new time, but Gast ran a 1:02.29 to take fourth over Parkway's Naomi Knapke by .34 seconds.
"There was a handful of girls that hesitated out of the start because of the different tone," St. Henry coach Matt Thobe said. "We're just glad that they gave them a re-run, and Evie took advantage. I feel for the Parkway girl who was sitting fourth originally, but we're proud of Evie for getting that opportunity to move on."
That led to shouting from two of the remaining spectators, one of whom yelled at Gast and the officials while the other yelled at him. Stammen and runners from other schools gathered around Gast as the two fans traded final shots and left.
With Knapke in fifth, Parkway's only regional qualifier was Taylor Muhlenkamp, who took third in the 3,200.
St. Henry's Morgan Baumer (long jump, fourth), Carson Harrod (110 hurdles, third) and Rileigh Baumer (800, fourth) all earned regional berths.
"Carson Harrod has worked his rear end off in the hurdles," Thobe said. "You go back two weeks, and he was not even a thought, for anybody, to be in the 110 hurdles. Now he's going to regionals."
The Redskins' three girls relays all advanced on Friday, as well as the boys 4x100 and 4x200.
St. Henry also had one of the closest misses when Karlee Buschur finished fifth in the 300 hurdles. Buschur ran less than 2/10 of a second behind her school record time, but lost a duel with Fort Recovery's Kiana Matsuda, who claimed the final spot by .08 seconds.
"She still ran a great time today, but credit goes to Kiana Matsuda," Thobe said.
"That 300 hurdles, to be fifth-place in the district, that might be the worst place to be," Grabowski said. "Karlee Buschur, that 46 is a terrific time. That's a regional finals time in my book. Just a tough district in certain events."
Moeller was neck-and-neck with Delphos Jefferson's Liv Lindeman until Allen East's Rilynn Jones surged past both, leaving Moeller runner-up. Marion's Georgia Fleck and Katrina Will took second and third in the shot put.
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Fort Recovery's Mara Pearson won long jump by 1/4 inch over Alex Kessen of Delphos St. John's.
Fort Recovery qualified Anna Roessner and Mara Pearson in the 100, with Roessner .14 seconds behind Alex Kessen of Delphos St. John's.
Roessner took first over Kessen in the 200 dash, and Pearson beat Kessen by 1/4 inch in the long jump. The Indian girls also won the 4x100, and Roessner overcame a three-second lead in the final lap of the 4x400 to give them fourth over New Bremen.
Trevor Heitkamp won the 1,600 and 3,200. New Knoxville's Jay Schroeder won the 110 hurdles and took second in the 300 hurdles, and the Rangers also sent on Preston Rutschilling (high jump, second) and Ariyah Pfenning (3,200, fourth).
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
New Bremen's Zach Wiedeman (left) and Dominic Schroyer advanced to regionals in the 3,200.
New Bremen's Zach Wiedeman and Dominic Schroyer ran 3-4 in the 3,200, and Wiedeman was third in the 1,600. April Baker ran third in the 400, Mia Hirschfeld was third in the 800, Sam Bernhold took fourth in the 800 and Tara Kremer was third in pole vault.
The regional at Troy starts with the first round of field events at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Minster's Anna Kohne takes the baton from Claire Bohman for the fourth leg of the 4x100 relay beside Alex Kessen of Delphos St. John's.
