Brunswick 3rd in MAC

MINSTER, Ohio — After earning a sixth-place finish in the opening day of the conference championships Tuesday, Holly Brunswick added two top-four efforts Friday.
The Fort Recovery High School senior placed third in the high jump in the second day of competition in the Midwest Athletic Conference championships, leading the Indian girls to a seventh-place finish with 36 points.
Versailles (158) fought off the host Wildcats for the girls title by 22 points at the 10-team meet. Minster scored 143 points to take the boys crown by just 3.5 points over Versailles while Fort Recovery went scoreless.
“I felt pretty good, because we saw a lot of bests for the year,” said FRHS coach Brent Niekamp, noting four career-best runs.“In the (boys) two mile Ryan Heitkamp and Derek Sutter both ran personal bests.
“Sam (Tobe) and Elle (Sutter) did the same thing in the (girls) two-mile.”
Brunswick followed up her sixth-place finish Tuesday in the long jump with a strong effort in the high jump Friday.
Despite fighting through a left leg injury she suffered during the long-jump competition, she cleared the bar on her first attempts at 4 feet, 8 inches and 4 feet, 10 inches. She was one of just four jumpers to make successful jumps at 5 feet, 2 inches, and narrowly missed on her final attempt at 5 feet, 4 inches to finish in third place behind Tiffany Geise of St. John’s and Amanda Winner of Versailles.
“She did well for having a little bit of a tweaked muscle,” said Niekamp of Brunswick, who was a state medalist in the event last season. “Getting 5 feet, 2 inches — her best this year is 5-4, and she just about got that. And I could tell just watching her jump that she wasn’t 100 percent.”
Brunswick went on to place fourth in the 100 hurdles, crossing the finish line in 17.08 seconds. She was nearly two tenths of a second ahead of fifth-place Bailey King of Parkway and trailed New Knoxville’s Haley Horstman (16.41).
Holly’s sister, Marissa, also a senior, turned in the next-best finish for the Indians in the 300 hurdles. She fought off Coldwater’s Brittanie Niekamp by less than a tenth of a second for fifth place in 50.68.
“She’s doing well,” said Niekamp. “She dropped her time some more. We’re looking at her technique, and we think … she can attack the hurdles a little more and drop it even more. And that could affect districts and give her a chance to get out.”
The Tribe girls scored points in all three relays Friday, taking fifth in the 4x800 event in 10 minutes, 38 seconds. They were seventh in the 4x400 with a time of 4:35, and eighth in the 4x100 in 55.61.
Kylie Kahlig, who posted a fourth-place finish in the shot put Tuesday, improved upon her qualifying effort in the 200 dash. After qualifying seventh, she dropped 0.15 seconds in the finals for a seventh-place finish in 28.02.
Sierra Pugh cut nearly a second from her qualifying time in the 400 dash to take seventh in 1:07.2, and Jessica Vogel also placed seventh in the 1,600 run in 5:50.
The best finish for the Fort Recovery boys came from Heitkamp, a senior, in the 3,200 run. He crossed the finish line in a career-best time of 10:56.92 for 10th place.
His teammate, Derek Sutter, was just two seconds behind in 11th.
“They’re both really good kids. They’re really hard workers,” said Niekamp. “And (assistant coach) Mindy (Bubp) is really good at giving them goals for their pace to run those races. They’re really good at sticking to that plan, and it’s starting to pay off with lower and lower times.”
Tobe added a career-best time by about a minute to take eighth in the girls 3,200 run in 12:37, and Elle Sutter also had a career-best at 12:39 for 10th place.[[In-content Ad]]