Three more advance

MINSTER, Ohio — On their first lap around the track, Elle Sutter and Sam Tobe weren’t even in the top half of the field. But by the time they hit the finish line they had each secured regional berths.
The pair of Fort Recovery High School athletes finished second and third in the 3200-meter run in the Division III district track meet hosted by Minster. Jessica Vogel added a fourth-place finish in the 1,600 run for the Indians, who were seventh in the 15-team field with 43 points.
The top four athletes in each event qualified for the Troy regional, which will begin Wednesday at 4 p.m.
“It’s really, really exciting,” said FRHS coach Brent Niekamp, who also had six athletes qualify for the regional meet on the opening day of district competition Thursday. “And it’s really fun to see how excited those kids get about it. It’s a great accomplishment.”
The host Wildcats won the girls competition with 122 points and the boys with 135. Runners-up were Marion Local (93) and St. John’s (83) respectively.
Fort Recovery did not score any points in the boys competition. The team was without injured junior Aaron Vagedes, who set school records in four events this season.
Sutter, a state qualifier this year in cross country, and Tobe were barely on the radar in the early going in the 3,200 run, sitting 11th and 12 respectively in the field of 15 athletes. But it was all part of their strategy.
Running within steps of each other, as they would for the entire race, the Tribe duo started picking off runners and moved all the way up to sixth and seventh by the end of the second lap. They continued their climb, each picking up one spot at the start of the sixth lap and another on the backstretch.
By the final lap they both passed Minster’s Leah Niekamp to take over second and third place.
“It was exciting,” said Tobe, a junior, of running ahead of Niekamp and St. Henry freshmen Alison Langenkamp and Courtney Kunk. “And it was nerve-wracking at the same time because I could hear them right behind me. I was like, ‘I’ve got to go. I’ve got to push it.’”
While Minster’s Averie Bornhorst ran away with the title at 12 minutes, 1.01 seconds, Sutter was the runner-up at 12:25.05 and Tobe placed third in 12:26.09. Niekamp finished more than three seconds behind Tobe in fourth place.
“It kind of feels like the whole entire weight of the world is off my shoulders right now,” said Sutter, who had a rough first month of the season as she battled an illness. “I was really freaking out for this. But it’s awesome.
“I’ve been trying to push myself even more than normal because of that horrible start. I wanted to see how far I could get. … This gives me hope for next year as far as how far I can go (if I’m healthy).”
Vogel ran a steady race in the 1,600 run to earn her trip to regional as she was fifth early and moved up to fourth by the end of the opening lap. She dropped back to fifth, but reclaimed fourth on the home stretch of the third lap.
The freshman made a final surge, narrowly missing a third-place finish as she was less than a second behind Crestview’s Janelle May in 5 minutes, 52.28 seconds.
“I’m pretty excited, just know that I have three more years to get better after this year is over,” said Vogel, who said she has a goal of reaching the state finals. “If not I’ll just try harder and harder.”
“In the mile, (assistant) coach (Mindy) Bubp had a strategy set up for (Vogel) and she ran it just right,” added Niekamp. “She was right where we hoped she would be. And then Elle and Sam did the same thing in the two-mile.”
Sutter, Tobe and Vogel had all qualified for the regional during the opening day of district competition Thursday  as they joined senior Abby Huelskamp for a fourth-place finish in the 4x800 relay. Holly Brunswick (high jump) and Kylie Kahlig (shot put) also secured regional berths with third-place finishes Thursday.
Brunswick narrowly missed a trip to regional in a second event as she competed Saturday in the 100 hurdles. She was in position for a top-four finish before clipping the seventh hurdle with her right foot, slowing her down just enough to bump her back to fifth place.
The senior placed fifth in 16.84, just seven hundredths of a second behind fourth-place finisher Bailey King of Parkway.
Huelskamp added a seventh-place finish in the 800 run in 2:34.9, and Kelsey Fiely, Alex Shelton, Kahlig and Brunswick teamed to place eighth in the 4x100 relay with a time of 54.05.
Senior Ryan Heitkamp turned in the top effort for the Fort Recovery boys, placing 10th in the 3,200 run in 10:57.4.
Derek Sutter, a freshman, was 12th in the race less than three seconds behind his teammate.
“Ryan ended a nice career today,” said Niekamp. “He’s a great kid and he works really hard. I’m proud of his effort.
“And I’m proud of what Derek Sutter has done. … I think he’s going to keep getting better and have a chance to get out of here in the next few years.”[[In-content Ad]]