FR takes 2nd place

SPENCERVILLE, Ohio — The Indians won three district championships.

Mara Pearson got them on the board early as her second attempt in the long jump preliminaries put her in control. She didn’t even take her final four attempts, instead immediately heading to compete in the 100-meter dash. Her legs, still a little tired from jumping, carried her to sixth place.

She had a short break until she ran as the fourth leg in the 4x100 relay, in which the Indians finished fourth to earn a regional berth.

After all of that, the fastest she ran was from the bus, back to the track, to celebrate with her coach and teammates after the public address announcer called Fort Recovery as the district runner-up.

Pearson’s victory, among seven other regional qualifiers, helped push the Fort Recovery High School girls track team to a second-place finish at the Division III district track meet on Friday at Spencerville.

The girls earned 61 points, edging out New Bremen (59) for second place behind district champion Minster (155).

“I’m very excited about that,” said FRHS coach Christy Diller, whose team was third behind Minster and Coldwater last season. “We’ll be the happiest second-place finishers ever.

“I told the kids at the beginning of the week that I thought we could get district runners-up. They were a little skeptical but I am so excited about that. That is awesome.”

Trevor Heitkamp’s pair of district championships earned most of the 27 points for the FRHS boys, who finished eighth out of 14 scoring teams. Marion Local won the meet with 157 points.

As has been the case for most of the season, Heitkamp was the dominant distance runner at the meet. He left everyone else in the district field in the dust in the 3,200-meter run, winning by more than 30 seconds in 9 minutes, 52.33 seconds.

The junior also posted a winning time of 4:33.21 to win the 1,600 run ahead of Minster’s Jack Grieshop (4:36.42).

“When you get to the postseason, your ultimate goal is to get to state,” Heitkamp said. “This meet was just the first step to get there. …

“My entire goal for everything was just to move on and qualify. No matter how my races were.”

The top four finishers in each event earned a trip to the regional meet, which will be contested Wednesday and Friday at Troy.

During the long jump, Pearson started out strong with a distance of 17 feet, 5 1/4 inches, before her second attempt took her half an inch longer. No one came close to her 17 feet, 5 3/4 inches, with second place only reaching 16 feet, 10 inches, so she elected to forgo her final four attempts.

“No one else was beating me so I decided to pass,” Pearson said. “I was trying to save my legs for my other events today. … Try to save my legs for the week to come.”

Pearson will also compete in the 4x100 relay at the Division III regional meet at Troy.

Anna Roessner also earned regional berths in a pair of events. Her day started with that 4x100 relay — she teamed with Pearson, Kiana Matsuda and Paige Guggenbiller for a time of 51.57 — and then had to run the next event, the 400 dash. Despite the quick turnaround, she finished third with a time of 1:02.15.

“I’m pretty tired,” Roessner said. “It was pretty difficult. I finished the 4x1 and went straight (to the check in) and had to go. … It definitely kills a little bit.”

She will also be competing at the regional in the 4x400 relay — she joined Ellie Will, Megan Diller and Matsuda and in the race — as the Indians finished second with a time of 4:13.72 just as rain started to come down.

The other three girls who qualified for the regional meet in an individual event are all a part of a relay as well.

Natalie Brunswick finished second in the 3,200 run (11:53.7), losing to Maria Niekamp (11:49.3) of Minster, who she also lost to at the Midwest Athletic Conference Championships on May 12.

Brunswick jumped out to a 100-meter lead over her Minster opponent during the MAC meet, but opted to run more conservatively with high winds posing a challenge on Friday.

“Since it was super windy out today … going into it we decided to not go all out,” Brunswick said. “There is no reason to. … Winning is always a good thing, but like (Diller) said, this doesn’t really matter. As long as you’re top four, that’s all that matters to get you on to next week.”

Brunswick will also compete at the regional level in the 4x800 relay along with Kennedy Muhlenkamp, Will and Diller after finishing third in the event in the opening day of the district meet Wednesday.

In addition to the pair of relay berths, Will also earned a trip to the regional meeting in the 1,600 run as she placed fourth in the district at 5:35.51. Matsuda added a fourth-place finish as she posted a time of 47.9 in the 300 hurdles.

The only Indian boy other than Heitkamp to qualify for the regional was Lucas Acheson in the high jump. His leap of 5 feet, 10 inches, was good enough to be tied for second place with Trevor Hess of Marion Local.

“It was all around a really good day,” Diller said. “We had so many great performances today.”