Jay swept 3-team meet

Twenty-five years ago this week, the Patriot cross country teams were both celebrating victories.

The Sept. 5, 1996, edition of The Commercial Review included coverage of the Jay County High School boys and girls cross country teams each picking up double wins against Union City and Monroe Central.

The two victories for the host Patriot boys improved them to 3-0 on the season. The girls team was 2-1.

The JCHS boys, paced by a 1-2-3-4 finish from Dustin Bantz, Jamie Rogers, Luke Bivens and Shaun Roberts, scored just 19 points in their easy win. Union City and Monroe Central tied with matching scores of 54.

The girls race was a bit closer, with Jay County’s Julie Lowe scoring the individual win to lead the team. Kristan Pfeifer and Libby Weaver followed her as the Patriots scored 27 points compared to 41 for Monroe Central and 62 for Union City.

Bantz took the top spot in the 5K boys race in 18 minutes, 3 seconds. He was 13 seconds ahead of Rogers, with Bivens and Roberts following with times of 18:32 and 18:37, respectively. Billy Duncan was the No. 5 runner for the Patriots, finishing ninth overall in 19:10.

Lowe, a senior who had led the JCHS girls team for each of the previous three seasons, ran away from the field, winning by nearly 2 minutes over runner-up Tonya Resler of Monroe Central with her time of 16:43 in the 4K race.

Pfeifer was third in 18:49, and Weaver, a freshman, was fifth in 19:13. Rounding out the lineup for the Patriots were Kathryn Gilbert in eighth place and Jill Siegrist in 10th.