May 13, 2023 at 4:06 a.m.
Three more titles
Fort Recovery distance runners Heitkamp and Brunswick join Pearson as Midwest Athletic Conference champions
Three more titles
By Andrew Balko-
NEW BREMEN, Ohio — Trevor Heitkamp will be at the Midwest Athletic Conference banquet.
He dominated the distance events.
It was never truly a competition in either the 1,600-meter run or the 3,200 run as he cruised to wins.
Heitkamp’s victories were the main source of points for the Fort Recovery High School boys track team’s eighth-place finish in the MAC Championships at New Bremen High School on Friday night.
He provided 20 of the Indians’ 29 points as they finished above St. John’s (24) and New Knoxville (8). Marion Local won the meet with 184 points.
The FRHS girls, who got a conference title from Natalie Brunswick, finished in fourth place with 80 points, just 4.5 points shy of third-place Coldwater. Minster was crowned the girls champion with 141.5 points.
“That’s a good outcome (for the girls),” said FRHS coach Christy Diller, whose team was fifth last season. “I would have liked to see third but that’s a good outcome. Encouraging that we were right there.
“I hadn’t heard that (the boys had beaten two teams). That’s a good outcome for us, too. Our goal is to just score as high as we can. That’s awesome.”
Heitkamp’s first event of the day was the 1,600 run. He began the race faster than he and Diller had planned.
“I was pretty excited because I knew the mile was where I was going to have the most competition,” Heitkamp said. “All month I’ve been thinking about it, mentally preparing for that race and got excited and ran that first lap a little too fast.”
Heitkamp noticed there were plenty of competitors in the 1,600 run who were also in the 800 run, so his plan was to start out fast to tempt them into burning themselves out and thus fading during the final two laps, he said.
Starting faster than expected didn’t hurt him, as he pulled away in the third lap.
He won the race with a career-best 4 minutes, 27.24 seconds, just under five seconds faster than Jack Grieshop of Minster in second place.
He looked even more dominant in the 3,200, gaining an early lead that would never be relinquished. The winning effort netted him a time of 9:45.33. Zach Wiedeman in second place crossed the finish line over 21 seconds later.
Brunswick’s first-place finish in the girls 3,200 run followed Mara Pearson’s MAC-record win Tuesday in the long jump at 17 feet, 11.5 inches.
Just as Heitkamp jumped out a bit too fast in the 1,600 run, Brunswick came out the gates hot and gained a 100-meter lead in the first two laps. It led a few of her coaches and teammates to believe that she would die out and finish third behind Maria Niekamp and Chaney Cedarleaf of Minster.
Despite the doubts, she kept the lead, finishing first with a time of 11:45.57.
“At the beginning of the race, I saw the heat sheets had a lot of similar times,” Brunswick said. “Minster usually has good race strategies but for me I just go out and run my race … Surprisingly, I was able to get such a good lead right off the start, which was unexpected … A win is always a good thing, especially at a MAC meet.”
The victory wasn’t Brunswick’s only contribution.
On Tuesday, she was a part of the 4x800 relay that finished second. She also was a part of a two-three finish for the girls in the 1,600 run. She took second while Ellie Will finished third, just barely edging Meredith Barga of Versailles by 0.05 seconds.
Diller was impressed with the team effort from the girls.
“Everybody did what we needed them to do,” Diller said. “The girls are just a lot more deep. Team-wise that helps us out a lot.
“Kiana Matsuda had a really good day today … Anna (Roessner) was very, very solid. It’s hard not to talk about them all because they all stepped up and had great days. Our girls team across the board had a great day today.”
Matsuda led off both the 4x400 relay (third place) and the 4x100 relay (eighth place) as well as ran in the 300 hurdles. She had a chance to be the third girl to win their event for the Indians, but couldn’t hold onto her lead. With only two hurdles to go, Miriam Gehret of Versailles took a slight advantage and beat Matsuda by 0.84 seconds.
Roessner contributed fifth-place finishes in the 200 dash and 400 dash and a sixth-place finish in the 100 dash, and ran the final leg of the 4x400 relay.
The other points for the boys came from a trio of eighth-place finishes from Austin Steinbrunner (100 dash and 200 dash) and Carson Fullenkamp (shot put).
He dominated the distance events.
It was never truly a competition in either the 1,600-meter run or the 3,200 run as he cruised to wins.
Heitkamp’s victories were the main source of points for the Fort Recovery High School boys track team’s eighth-place finish in the MAC Championships at New Bremen High School on Friday night.
He provided 20 of the Indians’ 29 points as they finished above St. John’s (24) and New Knoxville (8). Marion Local won the meet with 184 points.
The FRHS girls, who got a conference title from Natalie Brunswick, finished in fourth place with 80 points, just 4.5 points shy of third-place Coldwater. Minster was crowned the girls champion with 141.5 points.
“That’s a good outcome (for the girls),” said FRHS coach Christy Diller, whose team was fifth last season. “I would have liked to see third but that’s a good outcome. Encouraging that we were right there.
“I hadn’t heard that (the boys had beaten two teams). That’s a good outcome for us, too. Our goal is to just score as high as we can. That’s awesome.”
Heitkamp’s first event of the day was the 1,600 run. He began the race faster than he and Diller had planned.
“I was pretty excited because I knew the mile was where I was going to have the most competition,” Heitkamp said. “All month I’ve been thinking about it, mentally preparing for that race and got excited and ran that first lap a little too fast.”
Heitkamp noticed there were plenty of competitors in the 1,600 run who were also in the 800 run, so his plan was to start out fast to tempt them into burning themselves out and thus fading during the final two laps, he said.
Starting faster than expected didn’t hurt him, as he pulled away in the third lap.
He won the race with a career-best 4 minutes, 27.24 seconds, just under five seconds faster than Jack Grieshop of Minster in second place.
He looked even more dominant in the 3,200, gaining an early lead that would never be relinquished. The winning effort netted him a time of 9:45.33. Zach Wiedeman in second place crossed the finish line over 21 seconds later.
Brunswick’s first-place finish in the girls 3,200 run followed Mara Pearson’s MAC-record win Tuesday in the long jump at 17 feet, 11.5 inches.
Just as Heitkamp jumped out a bit too fast in the 1,600 run, Brunswick came out the gates hot and gained a 100-meter lead in the first two laps. It led a few of her coaches and teammates to believe that she would die out and finish third behind Maria Niekamp and Chaney Cedarleaf of Minster.
Despite the doubts, she kept the lead, finishing first with a time of 11:45.57.
“At the beginning of the race, I saw the heat sheets had a lot of similar times,” Brunswick said. “Minster usually has good race strategies but for me I just go out and run my race … Surprisingly, I was able to get such a good lead right off the start, which was unexpected … A win is always a good thing, especially at a MAC meet.”
The victory wasn’t Brunswick’s only contribution.
On Tuesday, she was a part of the 4x800 relay that finished second. She also was a part of a two-three finish for the girls in the 1,600 run. She took second while Ellie Will finished third, just barely edging Meredith Barga of Versailles by 0.05 seconds.
Diller was impressed with the team effort from the girls.
“Everybody did what we needed them to do,” Diller said. “The girls are just a lot more deep. Team-wise that helps us out a lot.
“Kiana Matsuda had a really good day today … Anna (Roessner) was very, very solid. It’s hard not to talk about them all because they all stepped up and had great days. Our girls team across the board had a great day today.”
Matsuda led off both the 4x400 relay (third place) and the 4x100 relay (eighth place) as well as ran in the 300 hurdles. She had a chance to be the third girl to win their event for the Indians, but couldn’t hold onto her lead. With only two hurdles to go, Miriam Gehret of Versailles took a slight advantage and beat Matsuda by 0.84 seconds.
Roessner contributed fifth-place finishes in the 200 dash and 400 dash and a sixth-place finish in the 100 dash, and ran the final leg of the 4x400 relay.
The other points for the boys came from a trio of eighth-place finishes from Austin Steinbrunner (100 dash and 200 dash) and Carson Fullenkamp (shot put).
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