Stars shine at ACAC

Wind was gusting to 30 miles per hour with temperatures in the 40s and gloomy skies above. Eventually, an icy drizzle began to fall.
But everything was bright and shiny for the Starfires.
Completing races at their new finish line while hosting the Allen County Athletic Conference Meet for the first time, the South Adams cross country teams swept Saturday’s competition with individual and team wins in every high school and junior high race.
“We pulled something off today that we’ve never done in the history of our program, and that was to sweep all four,” said South Adams coach Clint Anderson. “I know more attention is paid to the high school, but it was a huge day for us from top to bottom.”
Bailey McIntire and Olivia Von Gunten won the individual high school titles, with Luke Gerber and Kailee Patch taking the junior high races.
Von Gunten and Jay County’s Megan Wellman went back-and-forth in the girls race, with the former eventually taking control late to win by seven seconds. The Starfires claimed three of the top five spots to score 34 points and finish ahead of Adams Central (47) and JCHS (71).
McIntire was unchallenged as he won by more than 45 seconds to set the pace for the South Adams boys team’s 29-point effort. It was 10 points ahead of runner-up Adams Central in the seven-team field, with Bluffton (67) a distant third.
Jay County was fifth with 122 points, trailing fourth-place Heritage by six.
“I’m very happy with how they ran, considering the elements,” said JCHS coach Leah Wellman of her teams. “Going in we just talked about how a lot of it was just how mentally tough they were. I was glad almost that we had that race like that to prep them for sectional and regional and hopefully further, because that’s what it comes down to a lot of times in the state tournament is just being mentally prepared.”
While McIntire ran away from the field after the first kilometer of the boys race, Von Gunten and Wellman staged a battle from start to finish.
It was Von Gunten who took control in the early going, leading the field as it made the turn along a cornfield at the southwest corner of the South Adams facility. By the mid-point of the race, however, Wellman had pulled ahead and opened a 10-meter lead.
But Von Gunten closed the gap and locked in close behind the Patriot senior as they hit the eastbound stretch along county road 700 South with the wind blasting them in the face. She eventually took the lead and pulled away down the home stretch to post a winning time of 19 minutes, 35.5 seconds, with Wellman about seven seconds behind.
“She has developed quite a confidence this year in her kick,” said Anderson. “There was a point where it looked like Megan was going to pull away from her a little bit, and I thought it was nice to see Olivia respond and get herself back up there … By the time they got back heading east, we had made that up and got to sit on her tail and ride the draft all the way through that. That was a key part of Olivia.”
The rest of the field was more than a minute behind, with South Adams’ Kara Seffernick third in 20:58.47. Acacia Anderson was sixth in 21:15.92, Olivia Mason placed 13th in 22:16.56 and Katelin Hawbaker completed the Starfires’ team score in 14th in 22:17.81.

McIntire was his typically dominant self, running all alone through the second half of the race. He posted a time of 16:05.9 with Bluffton’s Jared Reckard well behind in second in 16:52.49.
South Adams took five of the top nine positions, with Wyatt Miller fifth in 17:16.17, Daniel Steffen sixth in 17:19.13, David Steffen eighth in 17:26.1 and McGerran Clouser ninth in 17:32.7.
Kellie Fortkamp, returning from a hamstring injury, gave the Patriot girls two runners in the top 10 as she finished in 21:19.75 for seventh place.
Erika Kunkler was 15th in 22:21.02, Taylor Homan finished 24th in 23:25.65 and Gabby Kunkler made her season debut in 29th with a time of 24:31.65.
Travis Barton shrugged off the brutal conditions for a career-best time of 18:17.71 to finish in 17th place.
Alex LeMaster was two spots behind in 18:48.93, and Tayler Smeltzer (23rd – 19:18.36), Dallas Dudelston (30th – 19:58.71) and Matthew Cox (33rd – 20:06.72) filled out the remainder of the top five.
The top seven competitors in each race earned All-ACAC first-team honors, while those in eighth through 14th were named to the second team.

Junior high
The girls race was all South Adams, with Megan Miller, Isabel Von Gunten and Mckenzie Sturwold joining Patch to sweep the top four as the Starfires finished with 19 points and cruised to victory ahead of Adams Central (77) and East Jay (81).
Luke Gerber won the boys race to lead the Starfires (43 points) to a 16-point win over East Jay. West Jay was last out of seven scoring teams with 163.
Patch ran away with the girls race by more than 15 seconds over Miller, finishing in 12:15.35. Miller was second, three seconds ahead of Von Gunten (12:33.66), and Sturwold took fourth in 12:36.41. Carlie Sealscott finished off the SAMS team score in 10th with a time of 13:11.41.
Gerber took the boys race in 11:05.41 followed by Carson Harris (11:14.6) of Southern Wells and Mason Winner (11:34.44) of East Jay. Trey Lehman (12:03.08) was the only other Starfire in the top 10, but Race Anderson (12:20.43), Clancy McIntire (12:21.78) and Aidan Von Gunten (12:33.08) were 12th, 13th and 17th respectively to secure the title.
Sophia Fugiett, West Jay’s only female competitor, led all Jay County runners in the girls race in ninth place with a time of 12:59.01. Miranda Alig led East Jay in 12th place with a time of 13:16.04 followed by Lindy Wood (14th – 13:35.98), Ella Roessner (13:47.82), Cheyenne Liette (21st – 14:08.85) and Jocelyn Reed (14:11.97).
Mitchell Winner followed his brother for East Jay in the boys race in 10th place in 12:12.91, and Brayden Sprunger (16th – 12:26.56), Flint Schmiesing (19th – 12:37.94) and Ben Strausburg (20th – 12:43.17) rounding out the top five.
Ethan Andreshak (26th – 13:12.51) led West Jay ahead of Cody Bivens (30th – 13:16.97), Gage Baker (31st – 13:24.88), Dallas Workman (44th – 14:47.48) and Colton Green (46th – 15:27.01).