Indians place 2nd, 3rd in home opener (03/31/06)

FORT RECOVERY — Fort Recovery’s track teams are still short on numbers. But not on talent.

The Indians, who have just 13 athletes on the girls team and seven on the boys, won seven events as they hosted a four-team meet Thursday.

The Anna Rockets won both the girls (128 points) and boys (106) competitions. The Tribe was second in the girls with 69 points, followed by the Houston Wildcats (29) and the Botkins Trojans (22). Houston was second for the boys at 81.5 with Fort Recovery (36) in third and Botkins (24.5) fourth.

“We had some real strong performances tonight,” said coach Jason Grieshop.

“For the first week of the season we couldn’t be happier. Tuesday (at Crestview), as a team, we ran real strong. Everybody that ran, ran well. Everybody that threw, threw well ... We couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Not surprisingly, junior Holly Stein led an Indian domination of the throwing events. The 2005 state-qualifier in the shot put won the event by nearly 10 feet with a toss of 35 feet, five inches.

Houston’s Stephanie Kirkpatrick was second (26 feet, 9.5 inches) followed by Anne Koesters (26 feet, 7.5 inches) and Lauren Day (26 feet, 4.5 inches), both of Fort Recovery.

The Indians also took two of the top three spots in the discus. Stein got progressively better with each of her three throws, finishing at 104 feet, five inches. Kirkpatrick (85 feet, 11 inches) was second and Koesters (76 feet, nine inches) third.

The boys team came up with two victories, one each from Matt Vagedes and Philipp Gantenbein.

Vagedes won the long jump at 18 feet, 9.75 inches as he competed in the event for just the second time in his career. He was also second in the pole vault at 11 feet, six inches.

Gantenbein, a foreign exchange student from Switzerland, took the 800-meter run by nearly three seconds in 2:05.03. He also brought the Tribe’s 4x400 relay team back from well behind to finish just four seconds off the pace as he ran a 53-second split on the third leg.

“We need more of his friends, because he’s pretty crazy,” said Grieshop of Gantenbein’s sprinting ability. “He’s helping us out a bunch.”

Vicki Roessner had a strong day in the hurdles, dominating the 300. She was well out in front after the first 100 meters and had no challenge down the stretch, winning by more than three seconds in 51.17. She finished second in the 100 hurdles in 18.98.

Sam Bihn had a slim lead through the first mile, then pulled away in the second half of the 3,200 run to win in 13:54.

Bihn also teamed with Mindy Vogel, Tina Roessner and Rachel Tobe in winning the 4-800 relay in 10:55.86.

“We’ve got a lot of kids who have a great chance of advancing (in the tournament) this year,” said Grieshop. “In order for that to happen we just need to keep working hard, keep improving. There’s nothing holding us back ... from making that next step.”

Anna won the meet on the power of three relay wins and two individual victories each from Sarah Schulze and Laura Gehret. Schulze, a junior who finished fourth in the Division III state cross country meet this year, took the 800 and 1,600 runs and Gehret was first in the 100 dash and the high jump.

The Rocket boys took all four relays and got two victories from Mark Bensman. He led one-two finishes for his team in both the 100 and 200 dashes.[[In-content Ad]]