Starfire girls, McIntire win titles

DECATUR — The Starfire girls made history.
Bailey McIntire simply continued his stronghold on the area running scene.
The South Adams High School girls cross country team won the program’s first sectional title, and McIntire was the individual boys champion for the third consecutive year Saturday at the IHSAA sectional meet at Bellmont.
South Adams’ girls had all five runners place in the top 15 for a team score of 43. Norwell was the runner-up with 63 points and the host Squaws were third with 68. Bishop Luers (75) and Canterbury (153) were fourth and fifth respectively.
Bellmont won the boys championship with 34 points, finishing ahead of New Haven (93), Heritage (118), South Adams (121) and Bishop Luers (125).
The top five teams and top 10 individuals not on advancing teams qualify for Saturday’s regional at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion.
Kallee Patch, Olivia Von Gunten and Eliza Harruff led the SAHS girls with top-10 finishes. Patch, a freshman, crossed the finish line in 20 minutes, 0.7 seconds. She was the second-fastest freshman, behind race winner Sydney Lambert (19:04.3) of Norwell.
Von Gunten was ninth 20:45.6, and Harruff was one spot behind in 21.08.2. Isabel Von Gunten finished 12th in 21:24.6, and Kara Seffernick completed the team scoring by placing 15th in 21:39.7.
McIntire, who was 11th at the state meet last year, ran away with his third straight sectional title by crossing the finish line in 15:56.6, more than 50 seconds ahead of runner-up Justin Gephart of Bellmont.
SAHS junior Wyatt Miller finished 11th in 17:29.1, and Victor Vasquez was 24th in 18:12.7. Luke Gerber placed 39th in 18:45.4, and Trey Lehman completed the team score by finishing 48th in 19:19.7.
Also running for the Starfires were Olivia Mason (18th – 21:54.4) and Hadi Hawbaker (26th – 22:30.5) for the girls, and Kamden Yoder (52nd – 19:35.2) and Logan Stephenson (60th – 20:14.5) for the boys.