Fort season ends at regional (10/29/07)

TROY, Ohio - There were hopes for one more week of Fort Recovery High School running, a second straight season of celebrating a trip to the state meet. But it wasn't in the cards Saturday.

The season came to a close for Indians Tina Roessner and Mindy Vogel at the Division III regional meet at Troy as they missed the top 16 required to advance to the state finals.

Roessner finished 41st in the 127-runner field, and Vogel was 91st.

Attica Seneca East won the meet with 71 points, and will be joined at the state finals by Minster (92), Fort Loramie (103) and Versailles (111).

Roessner ran her race, sitting in about 30th position after the first mile. The strategy for her was to make her move on the second mile, but she slipped to 39th by the mid-point of the race and finished 41st in 20-minutes, 42.98 seconds.

Brecka Szabo of Attica Seneca East finished in the 16th spot needed to reach the state finals in 19:56, the fastest in at least five seasons.

"We knew she had to have a strong middle part of the race," said Fort Recovery coach Jason Grieshop. "The first mile she was where she needed to be, but the second mile we needed to get just a little bit more out of her.

"I thought she did a great job of competing the entire race, and she ran, from my perspective, one of the best races I've ever seen her run."

Vogel got off to a solid start, running as part of the pack following freshmen leaders Brittany Stockmaster of Attica Seneca East and Janel Olberding of Fort Loramie. She was 11th at the mile mark, but was 17th a half-mile later and couldn't keep up the pace.

The senior struggled to a 91st-place finish, crossing the line in 22:23.22.

"Mindy went out and ran the race she needed to at the beginning of the race," said Grieshop. "She had a good start, a good first mile, but she just wasn't herself today."

Roessner showed big improvements during her junior season, in which she was the Tribe's top runner at the Celina Invitational as well as the district and regional meets. She also finished second to Vogel at the Brookville Invitational.

Her time Saturday was more than 40 seconds faster than a year ago.

"Tina proved to herself and everybody else that she's the most dependable runner we've got as far as going out there every day and competing," said Grieshop. "She isn't always the fastest, but every day she runs you know she's going to be in this range. She's someone her teammates ... can rely on. She's really come into her own."

Vogel was four in the MAC in her final season, and took titles at Brookville and Spencerville. She qualified for the state cross country meet as a junior, finished 30th in 19:47.

"It wasn't quite as good as it was last year, but it wasn't far off it," said Grieshop of Vogel's senior campaign. She still ran very well. ... She's got to be proud of herself and the accomplishments she's had.

"She had a ... great career. She's the best (girls) runner Fort Recovery has ever had ... She can't do anything but keep her head up ... It's been great coaching her."[[In-content Ad]]