Sutter 3rd in district

SPENCERVILLE, Ohio — Elle Sutter has been to the cross country state finals. She’ll have her chance Saturday to earn a trip to Columbus on the track.
Sutter was the lone member of the Fort Recovery High School track teams to earn a regional berth Saturday as she finished third in the 3,200-meter run in the Division III district meet at Spencerville.
The Tribe girls scored eight points to finish 15th out of 17 scoring teams at the meet, from which the top four athletes advanced to regional competition. The boys team was held scoreless.
Minster won both the boys and girls championships.
Sutter was one of three runners to break the 12-minute mark in the 3,200 run, finishing in 11 minutes, 59.47 seconds. She trailed Minster’s Katherine Burke (11:43.63) and Kaci Bornhorst (11:53.84).
Sam Tobe added a ninth-place finish in the 1,600 run in 5:54.29.
Derek Sutter was 12th with a time of 10:55.07 in the boys 3,200 run.

Jay 17th at invite
YORKTOWN — The Jay County boys golf team posted a score of 374 to finish 17th out of 21 teams Saturday at The Players Club.
Eighth-ranked Carmel won the event by two strokes over No. 2 Westfield with a 300.
Evan Mathias of the Patriots had two of his three birdies on back-to-back holes, playing 1-under-par on the 145-yard seventh and 325-yard eighth holes. He added a birdie on the 341-yard 17th hole and had seven pars on the way to an 80.
Noblesville’s Jackson Wright earned medalist honors with a 4-under-par 68.
Mitchel Rigby recorded five pars as he followed Mathias for JCHS with a 93, and Zach Fullenkamp had two pars on the way to a 96. Austin Wendel completed the team score with a 105, and Adam Alfont shot 110.

Back misses state
INDIANAPOLIS — Tyler Back still had a chance at a state berth after finishing fifth in Thursday’s regional meet at Ben Davis. But that opportunity slipped away Friday.
Back, a Jay County senior, held the last of the 27 slots for the state finals with only the regional meet at Valparaiso remaining.
In order for Back to reach the state finals, he needed his regional toss of 52 feet, ½ inch, to be better than that of the fourth-place finisher at Valparaiso. However, each of the top three athletes at Valparaiso cleared the state standard of 54 feet, 2 inches, and Hobart’s Gerald Valenzuela took fourth place at 52 feet, 9 inches, to knock Back out of the state field.

Rockets go 1-2
OXFORD, Ohio — The Portland Rockets dropped the first two games of their season-opening road trip before bouncing back to beat the Napoleon Riverbandits.
Ben Smith had a perfect second game at the plate Monday to lead Portland to a 7-6 victory over Napoleon in the second game of a doubleheader at Miami University. The Rockets dropped the opener 9-8 when they allowed five runs in the seventh inning, and also fell 17-7 Sunday to the Richmond RiverRats.
Smith, returning to Portland after playing in Canada in 2012, was 4-for-4 with two triples in the second game of the doubleheader. Tyler Reynolds picked up with win, with Dalton Gentry, Jon Keesling and Travis Gray pitching in relief.
A Justin Marrero three-run home run helped give the Rockets (1-2) an 8-4 lead in the opener before three errors led to the Napoleon comeback.

Farmer places sixth
MONTPELIER — Brock Farmer turned in the top finish among local drivers during Saturday’s action at Montpelier Motor Speedway.
Farmer, a Portland resident, took fifth place in the FWD Compacts race.
Travis Nichols led a group of three Portland residents in the Thunder Cars event with a sixth-place finish. Steve Mills was ninth, and Brian Baldauf placed 13th.
Jeff Baldauf of Dunkirk finished ninth in the Super Streets race followed by Fort Recovery residents Curtis Heiser (11th) and Cody Timmerman (13th).[[In-content Ad]]