Just do your job

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians have plenty of veterans with state experience.

Many of them showed out in the first home meet of the season as Natalie Brunswick and Trevor Heitkamp dominated distance events for two victories each.

Anna Roessner, Mara Pearson and Kiana Matsuda all took the top spot in their best events as well.

The Indians also had three new faces claim the top spot to support the veterans.

Aubrey Shuttleworth, Karlie Neikamp and Carson Fullenkamp all placed first to help the Fort Recovery High School track teams take first place at the first home meet Thursday, beating out four teams each.

The girls team dominated with 127 points, beating out Parkway who ended with 72. The boys team tallied 86 points to claim the top spot over New Bremen (79), Parkway (77) and New Knoxville (75).

“I didn’t even realize our boys won,” FRHS coach Christy Diller said. “This is kind of a big deal for them. …

“The weather was not on our side, people were grumpy about being out there but the (boys and girls) showed up. We talk a lot about not just going through the motions, but coming in and doing work. … For them to have that pay off is great and I’m so happy for them.”

The Indians garnered a lot of points from their athletes with state experience, but also got some key points from athletes who won their first events at a larger meet.

Shuttleworth, a freshman at FRHS, wasn’t happy with her performance from Tuesday’s meet at St. John’s and was determined to have a better start off of the block.

The extra focus on starting her races stronger led to a first-place finish in the 400-meter run and a career best time of 1 minute, 11.69 seconds. She beat the runner-up, Isabell Young of Parkway, by 3.51 seconds.

“Tuesday I didn’t have the best meet, so I pushed myself really hard to get the win,” Shuttleworth said. “I’m really excited about getting my first high school win.”

Along with the victory in the 400 run, Shuttleworth scored in the 200 dash (fourth place) and 100 dash (fifth).

Fullenkamp and Niekamp both picked up their wins in the discus. Diller confirmed that this was Niekamp’s first top finish at a meet and the first time Fullenkamp won at a meet with more than two teams.

Niekamp’s distance of 96 feet, 8 inches, beat Brynn Egbert of New Knoxville by seven feet and topped her own career best by nearly a foot.

“She’s hit some really good ones in practice,”Diller said. “So it’s really nice to see it, even on a poor weather night. …

“She just needs to get one or two of those and then your confidence gets flowing and then things start rolling.”

Fullenkamp previously set a career best mark of 108 feet, 5 inches, during Tuesday’s meet, but only needed a throw of 100 feet to take Thursday’s competition by seven inches.

Similar to Niekamp, Diller hopes this will help improve Fullenkamp’s confidence and mindset going into meets.

“He’s on a good streak right now,” Diller said. “He’s got a lot in the tank, he just doesn’t always know he’s got a lot. This should be a great confidence booster for him to know that he doesn’t need to hit out of the park all the time. He just needs to show up and keep getting base hits and that’s going to translate.”

The five teams at the meet, Fort Recovery, New Bremen, New Knoxville, Parkway and Memorial, had to fight rain and wind all evening. Coldwater originally was at the meet but left after a 30-minute lightning delay during the field events.

With poor weather, Diller and the other FHRS coaches just wanted their teams to get reps in — they had only had two full meets before Thursday — and to practice competing against those next to them rather than focusing on times or marks.

This translated into 12 first-place finishes and 12 second place finishes for the girls and boys teams.

The girls’ dominance was spread all throughout the events, while the boys team found particular strength in the field events, claiming one of the top two spots in all four events, including the long jump and shot put in which the Indians placed second, third and fourth.

“It really illustrates the point that you don’t need a whole team of superstars,” Diller said. “People need to just get a little bit better each day. We had multiple kids scoring (for the boys) which isn’t something that’s always happened for us in recent years.

“It just proves that you showing up and doing your job makes a huge difference.”

First and second place finishes outside of the wins by Shuttleworth, Niekamp and Fullenkamp include:

•Anna Roessner and Mara Pearson in the 100 dash

•Paige Guggenbiller (second) in the 200 dash

•Natalie Brunswick and Ellie Will in the 800 run

•Brunswick (first) in the 1,600 run 

•Maddie Hietkamp (second) in the 100 hurdles

•Kiana Matsuda (first) in the 300 hurdles

•The girls 4x100 relay team (first)

•The girls 4x800 relay team (first)

•Pearson and Heitkamp in the long jump

•Austin Steinbrunner (second) in the 100 dash

•Reese Diller (second) in the 800 run

•Trevor Heitkamp (first) in the 1,600 run

•Heitkamp (first) in the 3,200 run

•The boys 4x100 relay team (second)

•The boys 4x400 relay team (second)

•Lucas Acheson (second) in the high jump

•Isaac Roessner (second) in the long jump

•Connor Kaikala (second) in the shot put