The Daily Standard
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Compiled by Gary R. Rasberry
It's been a long time since the Celina boys cross country program last hoisted a Western Buckeye League championship.
For the Bulldog girls, it's truly been a lifetime.
The breaking of those streaks came together in Van Wert on Saturday as the Bulldogs swept the league team titles for the first time in school history at the reservoir course near Ohio Health Hospital.
The Celina girls won in a close battle with Ottawa-Glandorf, winning by a 52-62 margin to claim their first title since 2000 and the seventh WBL title all-time.
The boys had a little more breathing room in claiming its sixth title and first since 2007. Celina tallied 50 points with Defiance second with 72.
It was a joyous day for all the Bulldogs, to say the least.
"We knew this year we were in a position to possibly do that," said Celina coach Jason Andrew, who earns league's Coach of the Year honors for both boys and girls. "We knew we had to race well to do it, and we did."
Celina's Jennalee Dameron (3947) leads Kenton's Addi Manns during the high school girls race at the WBL cross country meet in Van Wert.
The ladies took to the course first on Saturday. Quickly the battle at the front was between Kenton's Addi Manns and the Celina tandem of Jennalee Dameron and Elle Miesse. Manns finished in 18:23.7 after placing third last season in Lima. Dameron followed in second at 18:36 with Miese close behind in third. Maci Maag was the first Titan to cross in sixth, with Celina's Janelle Dameron taking ninth before two more O-G runners crossed in 10th and 11th. Claire Huwer was 16th, followed closely by O-G's Carly Siefker in 17th. The Titans got their fifth scoring runner across in 18th with Izzy Utendorf, followed by three non-scoring Titans. Sophie Gudorf placed 22nd, clinching the title for Celina.
"The key for us all week has been O-G," said Andrew. "That's been our focus. We knew they were the team to beat. The thing about O-G is they have a pack of four girls. We knew if we could get Janelle in front of that pack and our other girls to break the pack up. We knew we had a shot. They executed our plan perfectly."
Jennalee Dameron, Miesse and Janelle Dameron earned first team All-WBL honors for finishing in the top 12, with Huwer and Gudorf earning honorable honors for finishing between 13th and 22nd.
St. Marys finished 10th in the girls division with 257 points. Piper Reams was the first Roughrider to finish in 36th with Lauren Schloemer in 52nd, Kacey Regedanz in 54th, Journie Rahrig in 68th and Iliana Tlahuel rounding out the scoring in 80th.
Celina's Colin Buening set a school record in winning the high school boys race at the WBL cross country meet on Saturday in Van Wert.
The Celina boys quickly made a statement in their race. Colin Buening, third last year at Lima, took the lead and pulled away, breaking 16 minutes in winning in 15:48.2, breaking the school record of 15:49 set in 2009 by Andrew Goodwin.
O-G's Cooper Fischer finished second, 24 seconds behind Buening with Kenton's Wade Manns taking third.
Bulldog Caleb Lehman placed fourth and Kaleb Dameron taking eighth, joining Buening in taking first team honors. Defiance brought in its first four runners in seventh, 13th, 14th and 16th, but Celina's Aaron Krogman and Eli Spring finished 18th and 19th to close out the scoring and earning honorable mention status. Defiance's fifth runner crossed in 22nd to clinch the title for Celina.
"Defiance is really good, young and are going to be good the next couple of years," said Andrew. "They were the team that was going to push us hard today. Our 1-2-3 were going to be consistent, but Aaron and Eli knew they were going to have to run really well. They knew they would have to be in the 17s (17 minutes) to solidify that chance for the title, and they did (Krogman finished in 17:27.6, Spring in 17:32.9)."
The St. Marys boys placed 10th with 270 points. Gavin Luebke led the Riders with 38th. Vince Walter placed 78th, Kaden Neal was 87th, Jaden Pence was 94th and Dominyk Wilkins was 96th.
In the middle school races, Celina finished third behind O-G and Van Wert in the girls race. Harper Minnich was the top Celina finisher in eighth place with Amelia Miesse taking 10th. Maci Ridgeway placed 37th to lead St. Marys. The Celina middle school boys were third with 81 points with St. Marys eighth with 223 points. Celina's Cameron Buening and Corbin Meyer were ninth and 10th, respectively. Kahle Bowersock and Layne Dotson were 44th and 45th, respectively, to lead St. Marys.
Both Celina and St. Marys travels to the Findlay campus of Owens Community College for district competition. Celina's boys and girls and the St. Marys' boys will run in the Division II race while the St. Marys girls run in the Division III race.
