Starfires dominate ACAC

MONROE — The Starfire girls simply weren’t going to give anyone else a chance.
Neither was Bailey McIntire.
By the end of the first kilometer Saturday, South Adams High School’s girls owned the top six spots. Little changed by the end of the race as six of the first seven, including champion Kallee Patch, to cross the finish line were Starfires.
That effort gave SAHS its third consecutive Allen County Athletic Conference crown in the meet hosted by Adams Central.
McIntire, a Starfire senior who is among the favorites to win the state title, was in the lead from the starting gun and never had a challenge. After he joined Patch for the sweep of ACAC individual championships, it took more than 1 minute, 30 seconds, for the next runner to arrive.
The dominant effort from the Starfire girls resulted in a team score of 16, giving them an 83-point win over runner-up Heritage.
South Adams coach Clint Anderson was happy to take the title, but also felt his team was capable of a little more.
"To get five of the top six is good, but I really feel like we were capable of better," he said. "I just would have liked to have seen a little more response out of us at the end …
"You have to be willing to lay it all on the line, because that position you gave up today might be the position that keeps you from advancing further in the tournament than what you have in the past. And that’s one of the goals these girls have got is they want to try to have the best tournament run of any team we’ve ever had."
Jay County, which had enough runners for a team score for the first time this year, was last in the seven-team field at 162.
The Starfires were third in a competitive boys race, scoring 65 points to finish behind champion Heritage (33) and Bluffton (50). Jay County was fifth with 131.
"Two guys were a couple places away from being all-conference," said JCHS coach Kurt Hess. "They were kind of hoping they would be right there … They didn’t quite get it."
The South Adams girls established themselves early and were dominant throughout, with Patch and junior Olivia Von Gunten running out front with a pack of four more Starfires following behind them. By the 4K mark, Patch had pulled away from her teammate and defending conference champion and went on to win by 26 seconds in 20:02.1.
Following Von Gunten were Eliza Harruff (21:09.8) and Isabel Von Gunten (21:17.3) before Woodlan’s Ellie Kayser finally broke up the Starfire bunch.
Olivia Mason capped the team score in sixth in 21:42.2, and Kara Seffernick was six seconds behind her in seventh.
McIntire, who finished 11th in the state last season, was never challenged in the boys race. He left enough time for three TV commercials between himself and runner-up Jack Beauchot (17:42.45) of Heritage as he won in 16:12.39.
"He’s having a good run at things," said Anderson. "He’s running well. The whole goal for him is four weeks from now. We’ve had our calendar circled all year long for the state meet."
The rest of the Starfire squad was made up of Luke Gerber (12th - 18:38), Wyatt Miller (14th - 18:44), Victor Vasquez (16th - 18:49) and Trey Lehman (22nd - 19:15).
Alex LeMaster and Skyler Myers ran close together for most of the race for Jay County, sitting in 15th and 16th at the mile mark. They each dropped one spot, with LeMaster finishing 17th in 18:51 and Myers 18th in 18:52.
Tayler Smeltzer was 31st with a time of 19:59, followed by Mason Winner (33rd - 20:01) and Candler Hedges (34th - 20:15).
The Patriot girls had a full team of five runners for the first time all year, with senior Erika Kunkler leading the way. She was 14th early on in the race — the top 14 earn all-conference first- and second-team honors — but slipped to 17th as she finished in 22:53. Gabby Kunkler was 22nd in 23:49.2, followed by Vivienne Kunkler (46th - 28:53), Kiara Walter (47th - 29:59) and Catherine Stafford (48th - 31:38).
"The girls, this was the first time they could actually score points. Everyone was as healthy as they could be," said Hess. "We had a couple girls who caught a few that were ahead of them at the very finish."

Middle school
South Adams edged Adams Central 52-55 to win the boys title led by Race Anderson and Clancy McIntire going one-two, while East Jay’s girls fell just short against the Flying Jets by a 52-57 margin.
East Jay’s boys were third with 69 points while West Jay finished sixth with 131.
In the girls race, South Adams placed third with 66 points, and West Jay was seventh with 169.
Anderson, a seventh grader, edged his Starfire teammate by just 0.3 seconds to win the boys race in 11:11. Mitchell Winner of East Jay followed in third in 11:12.7, and West Jay’s Aaron Funkhouser was 10th in 11:46.
As they did at the high school level, South Adams swept the ACAC individual titles as seventh grader McKenzie Sturwold won the girls race in 11:31. Sophie Fugiett paced West Jay in fourth in 11:59, and Mara Bader had the top time for East Jay as she took seventh in 12:18.
Also running for the champion Starfire boys were Aidan Von Gunten (13trh - 11:52), Kaleb Stevens (16th - 11:58) and Isaac Gorrell (20th - 12:11).
East Jay’s girls had five in the top 15 with Lydia Keihn eighth in 12:25 ahead of Miranda Alig (13th - 12:36), Lindy Wood (14th - 12:46) and Lillian Schmidt (15th - 12:46).
Following Winner for the Chief boys were Xavier Myers (ninth - 11:41), Tyler Manor (14th - 11:54), Flint Schmiesing (19th - 12:07) and Dustin Harris (24th - 12:27).
Other top-five runners for local teams were: Jocelyn Willis (sixth - 12:15), Megan Miller (10th - 12:26), Ella Neuenschwander (23rd - 13:27) and Addisyn Hunley (26th - 13:36) for the South Adams girls; Raven Weaver (18th - 13:04), Aubri Hatzell (50th - 14:55), Grace Shimp (57th - 15:50) and Gabby Bilbrey (67th - 18:52) for the WJMS girls; and Trenton Alexander (22nd - 12:21), Gage Baker (28th - 12:45), Kaleb Weaver (36th - 13:04) and Skyler Bee (50th - 14:53) for the West Jay boys.