Fort's Vogel makes state (10/30/06)

TROY, Ohio - The Buckeyes will be out of town this weekend, but the eyes of Fort Recovery will still be focused on Columbus. They'll be watching Mindy Vogel.

With her sixth-place finish Saturday at the Troy regional, Vogel again made reservations in the state capital. She will run in the OHSAA Division III Girls Cross Country State Finals at Scioto Downs.

The Indians, who were sixth a year ago, finished 11th in the 16-team field with 260 points.

"It's exciting," said Vogel, who also reached the state meet in track this spring in the 800-meter run. She added that she was disappointed the whole team will not be joining her for the race in Columbus, "but they said they'd come with me, so it should be fun."

Vogel is among several Tribe athletes who have reached the state meet recently in track, but is the first to make the state cross country finals in seven years. Val Roessner, whose sister Tina is a sophomore on the current squad, finished 37th in 1999 with a time of 20-minutes, eight seconds.

"It's pretty cool. It doesn't happen very often, especially for a small school like us," said FRHS coach Jason Grieshop after the race at Troy City Park. "The rest of the kids didn't go to state this year, but if you saw the looks on their faces, they were thrilled because ... as a team we got somebody there. They can all revel and share in the joy that Mindy's going to have next week running that race."

Defending state champion and Division III No. 1 Minster won with 41 points. No. 4 Versailles was second with 73 points with Anna (128) third and Lincolnview (139) fourth just one point ahead of Fort Loramie. The top four teams and top 16 individuals earned state berths.

Sarah Schulze of Anna ran away from Minster's Brigitte Sherman in the final 200 meters to win her third straight regional crown in 19-minutes, 31.09 seconds.

The race took on a different look than most with consistent 30-mph winds out of the west which often gusted even stronger. But Vogel played her cards perfectly.

The first mile of the race along the levee on the north side of the Miami River was run in several tightly-bunched packs, with Vogel battling for fifth place among the lead group of eight runners at the half-mile mark. She was in the same position at the mile mark, using the runners in front of her to shield herself from the wind.

The top three runners broke away as the field climbed to the top of the levee, but Vogel remained in the next group in sixth place. She stayed there all the way to the end, keeping Troy Christian's Jessica Brant just a step behind her all the way to finish sixth in 20:06.17.

Brant crossed the line in 20:06.65.

"The wind played a big factor in everybody's race, you could tell that, even with the leader," said Vogel, who ran 34 seconds faster than at the 2005 regional despite the wind. "It's just one of those things you've got to deal with."

Although Vogel down-played her effort against the wind, saying she could have run better, her time was the eighth-best among all four Division III girls races in the state Saturday. It would have been good enough to win the Youngstown regional and finish as the runner-up at both Tiffin and Pickerington.

"Mindy went out there today with the wind and ran probably one of the smartest races of her life," said Grieshop of the junior, who told her coach she barely felt the wind on the second trip around the lower part of the levee because of the wall of four runners she allowed to form in front of her.

"She stayed behind the front pack the whole time. She never let herself get far away from them, but she never once ... subjected herself to the wind. She ran behind somebody for 3.1 miles today. ... You can't ask for a better race."

Tina Roessner turned in the No. 2 time for the Indians, falling just behind Fort Loramie's Megan Fullenkamp at the finish to place 39th in 21:24.

Sam Bihn ran her typically consistent race for 69th in the 123-runner field at 22:30. Amber Heitkamp was 92nd in 23:30, and Sam Staugler finished off the Tribe's team score in 25:24.

Also running for the Tribe were Melissa Tobe (117th - 27:25) and Kelsey Brockman (120th - 28:14).

"We had a pretty decent day," said Grieshop. "We did about as well as we could have expected ourselves to do this year. We made it to regional. We didn't quite have the ammo to get to state, but we came here and ran pretty well. ...

"I think you look at today and you can't be anything but happy for the kids for what they did this year, what they accomplished."[[In-content Ad]]