Vogel, Roessner third for the Tribe (05/13/06)

MINSTER, Ohio — The Indians got a couple of top-three finishes and picked up positions from Tuesday’s preliminaries in several events, putting together a strong effort on the second and final day of the Midwest Athletic Conference meet Friday night.

Junior Vicki Roessner and sophomore Mindy Vogel shared the top result for the girls team, each posting a third-place finish. Phil Gantenbein was the only individual to score on the boys side.

Thanks to a lack of numbers, both Indian teams finished last in the 10-team competition. The girls scored 38 points, and the boys finished with 16.

Versailles won both titles, outdistancing the host Wildcats 112-101 on the girls side. The Tiger boys scored 129.5 points for a comfortable win over New Bremen (101).

“It’s kind of bitter sweet because we’re happy with the results we had, but you just wish you had more people to go around to make the team feel better,” said FRHS coach Jason Grieshop. “We had some real strong moments ... we just don’t have enough depth on our team.

“Overall we’re very pleased. I think we’re ready to hit districts next week and see what we can do.”

The Indians will return to Minster for district competition Thursday at 4 p.m.

Running in lane six Friday, Roessner led the way over the first three hurdles in the 300-meter race. But by the fourth Tori Recker of St. John’s and Ashley Meiring of Minster had pulled even.

Recker pulled away down the stretch, and Roessner ended up third behind Meiring in 50.25 seconds. Despite cold and sometimes rainy conditions, her time was more than a half-second faster than in the preliminary round.

Roessner showed even bigger improvement from the preliminaries in the 100 hurdles where she was seeded eighth after finishing in 18.13 Tuesday. She ran an excellent race and just got in front of senior Erin Keise of Versailles at the finish line to take fifth in 17.52.

“She obviously ran better than what she was seeded to do,” said Grieshop of Roessner’s 100. “She performed well.

“She is so close to where she needs to be (in the 300 hurdles). It was her strongest race of the year,” he added, explaining that Roessner is still losing about a half-second on two hurdles. “If she can get rid of that half-second, she’s going to be tough to beat.”

Vogel made her move in the 800 run at the beginning of the second lap, surging all the way to second place with 300 meters to go. She slipped back to third with 100 meters left before engaging Minster freshman Bernadette Burke in a battle for the runner-up spot.

The Fort Recovery sophomore fell just short at the finish, taking third in 2-minutes, 22.56 seconds — just four hundredths of a second behind Burke. They were just two seconds off the pace of Coldwater’s Ashley Kanney, who set a new MAC record in the event at 2:20.33.

“Mindy ran what I would call the race of her life tonight,” Grieshop said. “She ran a time that a lot of years would win the 800 race. ... She’s got a lot of promise.”

Gantenbein also made a move in the final 100 meters of the boys 800 run. He pushed past Marion Local senior Lee Homan to place finish in 2:05.63.

“That was his best 800 of the year,” said Grieshop of the foreign exchange student from Switzerland. “It was the first time he’s run against that kind of competition in this area. He fared pretty well. It was a good learning experience for him.”

Tribe freshman Tina Roessner added a couple of top-eight finishes. She was seventh in the 3,200 run in 12:43.07 and eighth in the 1,600 run with a time of 5:52.95.

The Indian boys and girls 4x400 relay teams each picked up one spot over Tuesday’s preliminaries. The boys team of Eric Lamm, Mitch Fullenkamp, Matt Vagedes and Gantenbein was sixth in 3:43.28, and the girls group of Tiff Gaerke, Vicki Roessner, Tina Roessner and Mindy Vogel placed seventh in 4:25.32.

Anne Koesters, Holly Stein, Melissa Tobe and Rachel Tobe ran the 4x100 relay in 1:00.47 to place eighth.

“We showed some improvement ... a great stride,” said Grieshop of the 4x800 boys team. “It’s great determination on their part to pick up that spot.

“It’s the same thing for the girls,” he added, saying they were expected to finish a distant last, “and they end up beating Marion. It was a good way to finish the meet — two positive notes for the team.”

On the opening day of the MAC meet Tuesday, Holly Stein set a new school record as she finished first in the shot put. Anne Koesters added a sixth-place finish in the shot put.

Matt Vagedes was third in the pole vault, and both the boys and girls 4x800-meter relay teams were sixth.[[In-content Ad]]