Martinez zooms to title, SA girls win 5th

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MONROE – In his first high school race, Sam Martinez started out fast.

A little too fast.

He burned out quickly and didn't perform well, finishing fourth on his team.

Six weeks later he's a conference champion.

Martinez, a South Adams High School sophomore, blazed his way toward the front of the pack within the first 100 meters and never relinquished his spot in claiming the individual title in the Allen County Athletic Conference Championships at Adams Central.

“He's got a ton of potential,” said SAHS coach Clint Anderson. “Very talented kid that works hard. Just gotten better every week.

“For him to come in here and do what he did today is pretty cool.”

Martinez led the Starfire boys finish runner-up with 75 points. Heritage repeated as team champions with a score of 36, and Woodlan totaled 87 for third. Jay County was sixth with 122 points.

The South Adams girls claimed their fifth consecutive ACAC title, getting three of the top seven spots on its way to a score of 47. Bluffton (83) was second and Heritage (97) was third. Jay County totaled 110 points for sixth.

“It's one of those targets, one of those dates we circle on the calendar every year,” Anderson said. “We want to come up here and compete well (and) we did.

“I would say not everybody would say they ahd their best day but you'll have that. It's nice to know you're good enough that even when not everybody has their best day you're good enough to pull through.”

Martinez, who began running cross country just this season, had a five-second lead at the mile mark and pushed it to nearly eight seconds after two miles. He continued to get stronger in the final mile, finishing with a time of 17 minutes, 24.5 seconds, a victory over Niklaus Smith of Heritage by more than 11 seconds.

“Couple weeks ago at our place a good deal of the conference was there, some guys we thought were contenders for the conference,” Anderson said. “Couple of them beat him at the end of the race but he was right there with them. I think it gave him a lot of confidence coming into this week knowing he was good enough if he had a nice day.”

Trey Lehman (18:39.8), Clancy McIntire (18:41.1) and Race Anderson (18:45.7) were 13ththrough 15th respectively, while Aidan Von Gunten (33rrd – 20:02.2) completed the team total.

Skyler Myers of Jay County was the top Patriot as he finished fourth overall in 17:43.1. Tayler Smeltzer (19:00.1) joined him in the top 20 by crossing in 18th, and Aaron Funkhouse was third on the team in 31st in 19:59.2.

Dustin Harris (20:16.3) and Ben Strausburg (20:17.4) were 41st and 42nd respectively.

Kallee Patch, a South Adams junior and two-time defending individual champion, was out front nearing the one-mile mark, but fell to second during mile two. That's where she stayed, as Adams Central freshman Marissa Van De Weg won with a time of 20:05.5. Patch was runner-up by 16 seconds.

“When you come into a meet like this, when you know they're good, you just have to come into it and execute the race the best that you can and not worry about what anyone else does,” Clint Anderson said. “Even though (Patch) didn't win, she didn't get her third in a row, she didn't have a bad day.”

McKenzie Sturwold, a SAHS freshman,, was fourth in 20:59.7, and Megan Miller placed seventh in 21:28.9 to give the Starfires three first team all-conference runners.

The top seven individuals are named first team while places eight through 15 are named second team.

Eliza Harruff (16th – 22:38.6) and Ella Neuenschwander (18th – 22:58.6) also scored for South Adams.

Jay County sophomore Sophia Fugiett earned first team all-ACAC as she placed fifth in 21:15.8. Raven Weaver (20th – 23:08.9), Lindy Wood (23rd – 23:18), Miranda Alig (28th – 23:53.4) and Lita Chowning (34th – 24:44.2) each contributed to the Patriot team score. The top five JCHS runners are all underclassmen.

Also running for the Jay County boys were Seth Wilson (44th), Mitchell Winner (46th), Ethan Andreshak (50th), Kaleb Weaver (55th) and Nathanael Day (57th). Kam Yoder placed 37th for South Adams.

Isabel Von Gunten (29th) and Acacia Anderson (31st) also ran for the Starfires, while Vivienne Kunkler (48th), Erica Hathaway (49th), Tursunai Turumbekova (50th) and Catherine Stafford (56th) competed for the Patriots.