Indians qualify (10/20/2008)

SPENCERVILLE - The Indians are back.

After missing out on a regional berth a year ago, the Fort Recovery High School girls cross country team earned its way back Saturday. The Indians scored 127 points to finish in fourth place, 15 points ahead of fifth-place Marion Local.

The Tribe finished behind champion Minster (22), the host Bearcats (50) and Coldwater.

The top four teams and top 16 individuals earned regional berths. They will compete in the Troy regional Saturday at 1:20 p.m.

Fort Recovery's boys finished 10th in a 12-team field with 311 points. New Bremen won with 65 followed by Minster (80), Coldwater (89) and St. Henry (103).

Senior Tina Roessner, who made an individual regional appearance last season along with then-senior Mindy Vogel, led the Indians. She was more than a minute faster than the rest of the squad, finishing 10th in 20-minutes, 15 second.

Alexis Sutter and Casey Backs followed in 24th and 26 with times of 21:26 and 21:31 respectively. Nicole Heitkamp was 31st in 21:59, and Abby Huelskamp finished 36th with a time of 22:07.

Ryan Heitkamp was the only Fort Recovery boy in the top 50 as he finished 34th in 18:05. Caleb Heitkamp was 59th in 19:16 ahead of Mathias Koester (74th - 20:51), Adam Pohl (75th - 20:57) and Zach Guggenbiller (76th - 21:19).[[In-content Ad]]