Sweeping to victory (08/31/06)

The Patriot girls knew the course, so they led the way.

Jay County accounted for the first five runners across the finish line in the girls race as they dominated Wednesday's cross country meet against the Monroe Central Golden Bears and Union City Indians. The Patriots posted the lowest possible score of 15 with Monroe Central (49) second and Union City (76) in third.

Monroe Central won the boys race with a score of 25, but the Patriots showed continued improvement in finishing second with 48 points. Union City was third with 55.

"It doesn't get much better on the girls side," said JCHS coach Les Bantz. "Boy, they all ran really good times for the course.

"The boys did probably about as good as they could do. We're heading in the right direction."

Jay County's girls team left no doubt as junior Amanda Johnson and senior Jessica Mosier ran out to the early lead.

Sophomore Kylie Wellman quickly took third place, and after their first trip through the woods behind the former soccer field senior Allison Fullenkamp was fifth.

Through the 2K-mark the Patriots had eight of the top 10 runners, and that pattern did not change.

With just one kilometer to go in the 4K race it was all Patriots, with Johnson and Wellman battling for the lead. Mosier was a solid third with Fullenkamp in fourth and freshman Kari Hemmelgarn holding off Monroe Central's Sara Lyons for fifth.

Johnson pulled away in the final 500 meters to win by six seconds over Wellman in 17-minutes, two seconds.

Mosier was third in 17:37 with Fullenkamp fourth at 18:06.

Hemmelgarn, the only of Jay County's top five who was challenged, kept Lyons behind her and placed fifth in 18:30.

"I haven't seen her run hard yet - at least she doesn't look like it," said Bantz of Hemmelgarn, who has been his No. 5 runner in two of the three races this season. "She looks so comfortable. I don't think she knows how good she could be."

Lyons, who finished in 18:34, and teammate Elizabeth Curtis (18:59) were the only non-JCHS runners to make it in the top 11.

They were followed by Cassie Laux (8th- 19:22), Brittany Burris (9th - 19:23), Tina Gingrasso (10th - 20:21) and Kristen Selvey (11th - 21:24). Paige Klinger was 20th for the Patriots in 22:56.

The Jay County boys continued their climb.

The team had no runners under 21 minutes in their opening meet at Bellmont. Sophomore Brady Mills jumped all the way into the 19s at Celina Saturday, and freshman Tevan Nichols joined him Wednesday.

Mills put together another solid race, falling just short of a runner-up finish. He was two seconds behind Monroe Central's Derrek Calhoun in 19:36. Seth Thomas of the Golden Bears ran away with the race in 18:25.

Nichols was fourth throughout, but held a slim margin all the way. He fought off Monroe Central's Chris Thomas (19:50) and Lance Berg (19:51) to take fourth place in 19:47.

"I think it's partly him just getting a feel of it," said Bantz of Nichols, who was more than a minute-and-a-half faster than in either of his first two varsity races. "He said he was feeling good about the race.

"Tevan ran a lot of miles this summer, and Brady has a year under his belt. Those boys will both go in the 18s before it's over I'm sure."

Jay County had just one other runner in the top 10 with sophomore Steven Kelly 10th in 21:09. Josh Selvey, the team's lone senior, was 16th in 22:33, and sophomore Ty Fullenkamp finished 17th in 22:35.

Other runners for the Patriot boys team were (Branden Brinton - 18th - 23:11), Devin Willoughby (22nd - 24:52), Dylan Cook (24th - 26:03) and Adam Mescher (25th - 28:40).

Junior high

OSSIAN - East Jay's cross country teams had a tough opening day Wednesday, each finishing in the lower half of the Norwell Invitational.

The Chief girls were sixth out of nine teams with 127 points. South Adams was third with 103, and West Jay placed eighth with 207.

In the boys competition East Jay finished seventh out of nine with a 173-point total. South Adams was the runner-up with 65, and West Jay was last with 262.

Katie Butcher and Bradley Leuthold each placed 14th in their respective races for the Chiefs. Butcher finished the girls race in 13-minutes, 25 seconds, and Leuthold crossed the finish line in 12:02.

Leah Wellman was right behind Butcher for the East Jay girls, taking 15th in 13:37. Katie Simmons was 25th in 14:15 followed by Laura Bowen (31st - 14:15) and Deidre Chenoweth (42nd - 15:06).

Jacob Chenoweth was second for the Chief boys and 33rd overall with a time of 13:02. Rounding out the team score were Garrett Krieg (41st - 13:27), Blake LeMaster (47th - 14:21) and Austin Duncan (19th - 14:56).

East Jay was third in each of the reserve races with the boys scoring 90 points and the girls finishing with 95. South Adams placed fifth in the boys reserve race with 135.

The top runners again had matching finishes as Tasya Smith and Austin Bentz each placed 12th. Bentz crossed the line in 13:15, and Smith posted a time of 15:55.

Joining Bentz in the top five for the boys were Alex Dunn (21st - 14:08), Dylan Swingley (22nd - 14:10), Aaron Loy (23rd - 14:13) and Seth Ainsworth (26th - 14:30). Others in the top five for the Chief girls were Kelsey Powell (18th - 16:37), Alisha Grider (19th - 16:52), Sarah Ninde (22nd - 17:01) and LeAnn Horn (24th - 17:25)[[In-content Ad]]