FR 2nd, Patriots third

It was clear which girls teams were in contention for the titles as the top squads swarmed the finish line Saturday.
In the closed division, Fort Recovery and Hagerstown grabbed nine of the top 12 positions. And in the open division, Jay County, Eastbrook and Leo combined to sweep the top 13.
Fort Recovery ended up with the better finish of the two local schools at Saturday’s Jay County Invitational, taking second out of eight teams with 51 points. Hagerstown was first in the small-school competition with 32.
“The girls ran very strong,” said FRHS coach Michelle Stammen. “Elle (Sutter) moved up two spots from last year. In fact I had (four in the top 11) this year. Last year I think I had two in the top 10, so I was excited to see that. Everyone as a whole ran very well.”
The host Patriot girls scored 48 points to finish third behind Eastbrook (31) and Leo (45).
The Indian boys were fifth out of eight teams with 106 points, and the JCHS boys were sixth out of seven teams with 146.
Boys champions were Northeastern (34) in the closed division and St. Henry (33) in the open.
Katie Simmons of Jay County had the top finish among local athletes after running out to the early lead. She settled into second by the midway point, and completed the race in 19 minutes, 36 seconds to finish as the runner-up behind Eastbrook’s Sophie Seward (19:12).
“Katie did a nice job in the front,” said McEvoy. “She turned in another mid-19s. That’s a pretty good lead-in for sectional. I thought she did a good job, especially with the windy conditions, to be able to put together a sub-six mile.”
Sutter set the pace for Fort Recovery in the closed division, running near the front the entire way. She was third early, climbed briefly to second and then finished third in 20:40.
“She’s been a little bit faster every race throughout the season than where she was a year ago,” said Stammen of Sutter, who was a state qualifier last season as a freshman. “I think she’s in perfect position to perform well and have a great run in the tournament again this year.”
Jessica Vogel and Abby May ran side-by-side for the Indians much of the way, with Vogel finishing seventh in 21:58 and May ninth in 21:59. Nicole Heitkamp finished off the lead pack of Tribe runners in 11th in 22:19, and Sam Tobe placed 21st in 23:03.
Jay County’s girls finished with four runners in the top 12 as Eme Miller followed Simmons in fifth place at 20:43. Abigail Johnson was 11th for the Patriots in 21:41, and Liz Lennartz broke the 22-minute mark for the second straight meet for a 12th-place effort in 21:52.
Kaitlin Hemmelgarn completed the team score in 18th place with a time of 22:32.
While McEvoy said he was happy with having four runners in the 21s or better, he noted that he had hoped his squad could knock off Leo. The runner-up Lions beat JCHS at every position except the No. 4 spot, where Lennartz was 24 seconds better than Breann Fawcett.
“That’s the way our sectional is going to be,” said McEvoy, whose team has won five straight sectional titles, of the head-to-head battle. “It’s going to be us and Delta … so when you go one-on-one like that you’ve got to be able to seal the deal.
“I thought we started too slow, and I think it showed the whole race. You’ve got to get out and go. I don’t think we were … ready to go the way we needed to be. That pushed our times back a little bit.”
Dylan Cope had the top time among the local boys runners, finishing in 17:56 for 15th place. Sophomore Derek S. Sutter turned in a time of 18:08 for Fort Recovery in the closed division to take eighth place.
Nathan Fullenkamp was 16th for the Tribe in 18:41 followed by Joey Gonzalez (26th – 19:45), Marshall Hull (27th – 19:53) and Mitchell Homan (29th – 19:59).
Stephen Scott trailed Cope for the Patriots in 28th place at 18:41 ahead of Chaz Carroll (37th – 20:39), Jacob Nichols (40th – 21:44) and Wiley Young (41st – 24:33).[[In-content Ad]]