FR third in regional

TROY, Ohio — The Indians earned championships in three races.

It was nearly enough to give them the regional title.

Fort Recovery High School boys track team’s dream season continued Friday night as it placed third, just four points short of the title, in the Division III regional meet at Troy and earned state berths in six more events.

The Indians, who were coming off Midwest Athletic Conference and district titles, scored 60 points, trailing only champion Fort Loramie (64) and runner-up Newton Local out of 37 scoring teams with 36 points.

Fort Recovery’s girls earned a second state berth while placing eighth among 38 scoring teams with 30 points. West Liberty-Salem (92) easily took the title.

The top four finishers in each event advance to the state finals May 31 and June 1 at Ohio State University’s Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in Columbus.

While six-time state medalist Robby LeFevre was the individual leader, it was the effort put together by he and his sprint relay teammates that set the tone for the Indian boys.

As defending champions in the 4x100-meter relay, the Indians again were able to prove that they were clearly the superior squad. Riley Pearson, Jared Timmerman, Brayden Schoen and LeFevre were the only group to break the 44-second mark as they topped Newton Local by 0.34 seconds to win in 43.7 seconds.

Owen Moorman, LeFevre, Pearson and Schoen were dominant in the 4x200 relay with a winning time of 1 minute, 30.2 seconds. Runner-up Kalida was nearly a full second behind in 1:31.13.

Fort Recovery kept its relay dominance going in the 4x400 event as the defending regional champions obliterated their winning time from 2018. Drew Muhlenkamp, Jacob Acheson, Moorman and Timmerman won by nearly a full second over runner-up Covington, and their winning time of 3:24.68 blew away last year’s 3:26.16 effort.

LeFevre set himself up for the chance to earn two more individual state medals, including in the 200 dash that has been his forte. A three-time state medalist in the event — he was fourth during his junior season — he earned another trip to the state finals by finishing second in the regional to Kalida senior Josh Verhoff (21.64) in a time of 22.32.

In the 100 dash, LeFevre was the top qualifier before finishing third Friday in 11.24 behind champion Verhoff (10.9) and runner-up Cayse Propst (11.15) of Mechanicsburg.

Drew Muhlenkamp matched LeFevere for the top individual finish for the Indians as he placed second in the 400 dash in 50.1 to earn a state berth. He was just 0.03 seconds behind champion Austin Bruner of Tri-Village.

Kierra Wendel gave the Fort Recovery girls their second state berth Friday night as she broke the 2:20 mark in the 800 run. She finished in 2:19.2.

The Indian girls had already earned a state berth with a fourth-place finish in the 4x800 relay during Wednesday’s first day of competition. Jared Timmerman was fourth Wednesday for the boys in the long jump.

The Indian girls 4x400 relay team of Abbie Francis, Cassy Martin, Chloe Will and Wendel slipped to fifth in 4:05.59 after qualifying third.

Martin also came up just short of a state finals berth in the 400 dash, placing fifth in 60.14.

Will placed sixth in the 1,600 run in 5:24.5 and seventh in the 3,200 run in 12:03.44. The 4x200 relay team of Audrey Guggenbiller, Francis, Martin and Wendel posted a time of 1:48.48 for seventh place.

For the boys, Pearson was sixth in 110 hurdles in 16.29.