Freshmen power

CELINA, Ohio — The youngest set of Patriots found plenty of success at the junior high level.

With an extra two kilometers in high school races, there were some natural questions about how the freshmen would adjust at the varsity level.

Early in the season, the young Patriots don’t seem to be having any problem.

The freshmen-heavy Jay County High School girls cross country team fell just one point short of the runner-up spot at the 2024 Celina Rotary Cross Country Invitational at Wright State University – Lake Campus on Saturday, while the boys had a runner finish just outside the top 10.

The girls tallied 105 points to trail Eaton by one for the runner-up spot. Fort Loramie – which took fourth at the OHSAA Division III state tournament in 2023 – dominated the field to finish with 48 points.

“I’m super happy with it,” said JCHS coach Bruce Wood. “The girls stacked up pretty well and we’ve got a pretty good group of five there. … We’re still really early in (our training cycle), so these times are really good. I think we can still get another 30 seconds to a minute off on some of these times and we’ll be in good shape.”

Despite a pair of top-20 finishes, the boys ended with 209 points to finish eighth out of 12 teams, including four that competed at state in Ohio. Van Wert, one of the teams that made it to state, scored 36 points to claim the top spot.

The Patriots were without one of their returning leaders, Joseph Boggs, who has now missed the first two meets of the year with an illness.

“For the boys we still had one that was ill today that would be in our top five, that I think would get us up there team-wise and make us feel good about where we’re at,” Wood said. “I think we’ll have a really solid top five, top seven.”

Bellmont was the only other school from Indiana to compete, taking fifth (142) in the boys competition and eighth (172) in the girls.

Brooklynn Byrum and Jessie Homan paced the girls team. The pair of freshmen ran nearly the whole race side-by-side with each other, only separating once the finish line came into sight.

“We usually try to use each other and keep pace with each other, which I think we did a good job of doing,” Homan said. “We know you just have to keep getting faster and it helps to have someone from your team right there.”

“I feel like when we helped pace with each other, it helped us catch other people and speed up as the race progressed,” Byrum added.

The entire girls team started near the back of the pack out of the box, and by just after the one-mile mark, Byrum and Homan had separated to sit in 21st and 22nd, respectively. Midway through the third mile, they sat in 18th and 19th about 10 yards back from a group of runners in 12th-17th.

Over the last 150 meters, Byrum pulled ahead to cross the finish line 14th in 22 minutes, 25.1 seconds. The finish earned her some hardware as the first-place finisher got a plaque, 2nd-15th got medals and 16th-30th received ribbons.

“It feels really nice,” Byrum said. “I’m happy and thankful that I’ve gotten this good at just running three miles.”

Homan followed in 18th with a time of 22:27.4.

Abby Fifer and Alexis Sibray both earned ribbons for their performances. Fifer finished 25th with a time of 22:49.7, while Sibray came in 27th after 23:02.3.

Ava May rounded out the team score with a 31st-pace finish in 23:10.9. Taking up the final two spots were Lizzy Brunswick (24:46.6) and Lyla Kunkler (25:27.5) at 43rd and 51st.

JCHS junior Max Klopfenstein runs along with two Bryan runners during the Celina Rotary Invite on Saturday. Klopfenstein finished 58th with a time of 20 minutes, 1.7 seconds, in his first race of the year. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

 

Caleb Garringer claimed the top spot for the boys team. His time of 17:32.5 left him 1.4 seconds short of his goal to place in the top 10. Despite missing that goal, Garringer said he was happy with his time.

Freshman Dash Thacker provided the second score, finishing 18th in 18:00.1. He ran over a minute faster than in his varsity debut.

“Caleb has put in a lot of work,” Wood said. “It’s not really surprising to me. He’s putting the work in and doing it out on the course and racing well.

“Dash is figuring things out still. He’s a freshman in his second high school race. His first one, he had a little trouble pacing early and it bit him late. Seeing him get under 18 is great.”

Other scores for Jay County came from Max Klopfenstien (20:01.7) in 58th, Dougie Cox (20:07.9) in 61st and Beckett Brandonburg (21:51.9) in 90th.

Not scoring, but taking up the other two places were Lukes Powers (21:57.1) in 93rd and Cooper Glentzer (22:03.2) in 96th.

Six other Patriots ran on Saturday as well. For the girls, Paityn Wendel (26:54.7) finished 64th, Natalie Carreno (27:29.3) placed 68th and Alyvia Muhlenkamp (32:37.6) finished in 106th. For the boys, Alex Rivers (23:10.5) placed 104th, Ethan Powers (24:07.5) crossed the line in 114th and Isaac Hawbaker (31:39.9) placed 136th.