McIntire earns second win

CELINA, Ohio – Two races into his junior season, Bailey McIntire has two wins.
At the Celina Rotary Invitational on Saturday at Wright State Univeristy-Lake Campus, he was worried the second victory was going to be snatched away from him.
“I was terrified the whole race that some Ohio kid was going to jump out of nowhere and zoom by me,” the South Adams High School junior said.
McIntire was one of two South Adams runners to finish in the top 10, as the Starfire boys scored 48 points to finish in second place for the small school division. Fort Loramie edged the Starfires by one point for the team title, and St. Henry’s Red squad was third with 90. Fort Recovery scored 231 points for ninth.
The South Adams girls were also second with a score of 56 thanks to a fourth-overall finish by sophomore Olivia Von Gunten. St. Henry took the team championship with 58 points. Coldwater was third with 75 points. Fort Recovery scored 120 points for fifth.
Jay County’s girls scored 147 points to place sixth in the large school division. Darby (Hilliard, Ohio) won with 64 points. Bellmont (76) and New Haven (84) were second and third respectively.
The Patriot boys were seventh with a score of 190. New Haven won the team title with 29 points, followed by Bellmont (49) and Celina (84).
For McIntire, it took all of 10 seconds from the start of the race to make his way to the front of the pack. For the next 16 minutes, 18 seconds, no one caught up to him as the 2014 state qualifier created more and more spaced between him and the field.
“I was expecting that once I set into my pace some other guys were going to come up with me,” said McIntire, whose time of 16:38 was 41 seconds faster than runner-up Deric Laurent of New Haven.
Six of the top eight spots went to runners from Indiana. “But they never came so I kept picking it up and pushing.
“I was honestly terrified someone was going to catch me so I kept going harder.”
South Adams coach Clint Anderson said McIntire’s two victories are reflective of the work he’s put in following track in the spring.
“He’s coming off maybe … a track season I don’t think he was super pleased with,” said Anderson. “What it did, I think it re-focused him and let him know that things aren’t always going to come the way you want them to.
“You have to work for it and he’s worked so hard. He’s really trying to get this team dialed in. We can’t ask for a better start.”
South Adams senior McGerran Clouser, who also plays soccer for the Starfires, ran for the first time in his career Saturday and finished eighth with a time of 17:52.
“When he was done he said he felt like he had more to give so it’s a learning process for him,” Anderson said. “We’re very happy to see him where he was.”
Wyatt Miller crossed the finish line in 18:31 for 18th, with David Steffen (18:39 – 23rd) and Briar Goodwin (18:54 – 31st) rounding out the Starfires’ team score.
Fort Recovery’s Travis Sutter placed 15th in 18:14, more than a minute faster than his closest teammate. Isaac Siegrist was 42nd with a time of 19:16.
Cameron Romer (22:30 – 153rd), Noah Homan (23:12 – 170th) and Romeo Bilounga (23:41 – 178th) completed the Tribe’s top five runners.
Sophomore Alex LeMaster and freshman Tayler Smeltzer led Jay County by taking 61st and 67th place respectively. LeMaster crossed the finish line in 19:44, and Smeltzer was 18 seconds behind him.
“I was really impressed with a lot of the guys,” said first-year JCHS coach Leah Wellman, noting that Smeltzer was 42 seconds faster Saturday than he was Tuesday. “As a freshman to come out and do that on three days rest is really impressive.”
Travis Barton (20:22 – 83rd), Dallas Dudelston (20:47 – 103rd) and Matthew Cox (21:48 – 129th) rounded out the team score for the Patriots.
Bellmont’s Bailey Beery had a commanding time of 19:19 to win the girls’ race. She was 47 seconds faster than runner up Kayla Mayer of Darby. Von Gunten was in third at the one-mile mark and also with one kilometer left. She fell back to seventh, but sprinted the final 50 meters to pass Hayley Newman of New Haven and Celina’s Lauren McDonough to finish fourth in 20:32.
“Olivia showed more fight this week than she did last week,” Anderson said. “It was nice to see her make the move up in the end. It looked like she was going to give up a few spots but she fought for that.”    
Seniors Megan Wellman and Kellie Fortkamp were seventh and 11th respectively for Jay County. Wellman had a time of 20:48 while Fortkamp crossed the finish line in 21:36.
“I talked to them about going out slower and building upon it during the race,” Leah Wellman said. Her sister Megan was third at both the one-mile and four-kilometer marks. “I like that they went out, tried that and did something different.
“It worked for them. It is nice that they could see that (result) tweaking the race a little bit.”
Kara Seffernick was 15th for South Adams with a time of 22:01. Acacia Anderson (22:27 – 27th), Katelin Hawbaker (23:29 – 49th) and Hadi Habaker (23:32 – 51st) also scored for the Starfires.
Jay County’s Erika Kunkler placed 74th with a time of 24:23. Taylor Homan (25:26) was 102nd in her first career race, and Destiny Berry (28:24) was 148th.
Hannah Heitkamp was the lead runner for Fort Recovery, finishing 32nd with a time of 22:45. Chloe Will (23:26 – 48th), Caitlyn Huelskamp (23:36 – 52nd), Elise Gehle (23:34 – 79th) and Grace Gehle (24:36 – 80th) also scored for the Tribe.