Tribe girls 2nd in MAC

COLDWATER, Ohio — The Indians were runners-up once again.

Fort Recovery High School’s girls cross country team followed its runner-up finish a week earlier by taking second in the Midwest Athletic Conference Championships on Saturday at Coldwater.

Minster, four-time defending Division III state champion, had four of the top five spots in totaling 21 points to win the conference title for the eighth straight year and 33rd overall in program history. Fort Recovery scored 78 points for second, edging Versailles by two points.

The Minster boys made it a Wildcat sweep by scoring 21 points as well to claim their fourth straight MAC title. Fort Recovery had 176 points for seventh.

Fort Recovery’s Ellie Will prevented the Wildcat girls from garnering their top-five sweep by placing second in 19 minutes, 29.61 seconds. Jenna Hart was 14th in 20:41.69, and Brynn Stammen ended 19th in 20:49.41. Megan Diller had a time of 20:58.17 for 21st, and Hanna Mezger ended in 21:18.61 for 25th.

Ella Boate of Minster won the individual title in 18:44.45.

Trevor Heitkamp was the top FRHS boy, placing 15th in 18:09.25.

Connor Gower (19:22.24) ended 37th, Ethan Evers (19:49.79) placed 53rd, Luke Keller (19:56.53) was 57th and Caleb Rammel (20:31.44) finished 63rd.

Alex Albers of Minster had a time of 16:24.07 to win the individual championship.

Also running for the Tribe girls were Anna Wendel (27th) and Alexis Wendel (36th), while Jac Barga (100th) and Christian Marchal (106th) ran for the boys.



Three honored

Three Fort Recovery volleyball players were named among the MAC’s all-conference teams Monday.

Paige Fortkamp and Whitley Rammel earned first-team honors, while Kierra Wendel was named honorable mention.

Fortkamp, a senior outside hitter for the Division IV No. 6 Indians (18-3, 8-1 MAC), led the conference with 337 kills, 60 more than anyone else in the league. She also ranked seventh in aces (50) and 12th in digs (185).

Rammel, a junior middle hitter, was second for the Tribe and sixth in the MAC with 254 kills. Her 89 blocks were second to Marion Local’s Alana Pohlman.

Wendel, a senior libero, recorded 211 digs for ninth in the league.

Fort Recovery is the top seed in the Northwest District 5 tournament. It opens postseason play at 5 p.m. Thursday at Fort Site Fieldhouse against either No. 6 seed Lima Central Catholic or No. 7 seed Kalida, who play tonight.

The No. 2 New Knoxville Rangers (19-0, 9-0 MAC) were the conference champion this year. New Knoxville’s Meg Lageman was coach of the year, and Ranger junior Carsyn Henschen was named player of the year.