Fort girls 2nd (03/30/05)

CONVOY, Ohio — When you have just one senior, it helps when that person can be your team leader. And the Indians couldn’t have asked for much more from Kristi Westgerdes.

The Fort Recovery girls track team’s lone senior accounted for two of its four victories in the season opener Tuesday, and scored points in each of her four events as the Tribe finished second in a three-way meet at Crestview. The Indians scored 54 points, finishing behind the host Knights (83) and ahead of the Parkway Panthers (21).

The Tribe boys team got a big boost from a freshman as Matt Vagedes tied the school record in the pole vault in his first career meet. But, as a team the Fort Recovery boys were third with 33.5 points behind Crestview (74.5) and Parkway (60).

Westgerdes earned fairly easy victories in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes. She was well ahead of the pack in both races, winning the 100 in 13.49 seconds and the 200 in 28.94. Crestview’s Melissa Rice was second in both races in 14.81 and 32.26 respectively.

The senior was also second in the long jump at 14 feet, six inches and third in the high jump at four feet, six inches.

“Definitely,” said first-year coach and 2000 FRHS graduate Jessica Faller when asked if she thought Westgerdes stepped up to lead the team in its first outing. “Placing in all four events that she participated in and getting first in her two running events was fantastic.”

Mindy Vogel earned the only other individual victory for the Indians, dominating the 400 dash. She won by nearly five seconds over Crestview’s Sandy Brown in 1-minute, 6.96 seconds.

Vogel, Lindsay Sudhoff, Vicki Roessner and Holly Stein, who filled in at the last minute for Sam Bihn who had just finished the 3,200 run, teamed for a big win in the 4x400 relay. Vogel soared out to the lead on the first leg, and Stein, Sudhoff and Roessner never let Crestview or Parkway get close as they won by 25 seconds in 4:57.94.

Stein was also second in both the shot put and the discus, and Stefanie Schuessler was second in the 800 run and the high jump.

Also adding second-place efforts were Roessner in the 100 and 300 hurdles, Sudhoff in the 1,600 run and Bihn in the 3,200 run.

“Holly Stein placed in both the disc and the shot put tonight, and then she stepped in and ran the 4x4 pretty well,” said Faller. “They got a first place in that too, so I was really happy with that.

“Stephanie Schuessler did real well. I was expecting that from her (in the high jump). I don’t think she was expecting that from herself. I think she’s going to improve throughout the year in that definitely. She’s effortless.”

Vagedes accounted for the only victory for the Indian boys team.

His pole vault of 11 feet tied the school record which was set in the late 1980s.

He was a full foot better than anyone else at the meet as Seth Schulte of Crestview took second at 10 feet.

“For the first meet that’s really good,” said Faller. “He’s really happy about that.”

Mitch Fullenkamp was second in the 3,200 run, and Eric Lamm was second in the 800 run.

“I definitely think (it was a good first meet),” said Faller. “I think some of them surprised themselves by what they can do. They didn’t realize how much better competition makes you run. They were shaving seconds off their times from practice. I was happy with tonight.”[[In-content Ad]]