Lancers champs; Knights advance runners

Van Wert independent sports/submitted information

OTTAWA — Lincolnview won the boys’ Division III cross country district championship at Ottawa Park on Saturday, while the Lady Lancers brought home the runner-up trophy. Both will compete in the regionals this week, along with Crestview’s girls’ team and Wyatt Richardson from the boys team.

The Lancers were able to place their top five runners in the top 17 of the race, and finished with 42 team points. They were led by a runner up finish by Alek Bowersock, who covered the course in 16:51. He was followed closely by Karter Tow who placed third overall in a time of 16:53. Also qualifying for the regional meet individually were Devon Bill in 12th (17:41) and Jacob Keysor in 14th (17:48). Rounding out the scoring was Collin Puckett in 17th, Daegan Hatfield in 23rd and Joe Sadowski in 33rd.

“The boys had a solid race today,” Lincolnview head coach Matt Langdon said. “It was fun to win the district title, place two out of the top three, and have four individual qualifiers. There were a lot of smiles today.”

“The kids have worked a long time to get here so there is a lot of comfort in finally reaching some of our goals,” Langdon added. “Our goal all season was to get back to the regional meet so that we could have a chance to qualify for the state meet.”

“Now, we just need to do what we have done all season. The kids have traditionally run really well at the regional meet so we are excited to see what we can do against some of the best competition in the state. It will be a fun week ahead.”

Crestview narrowly missed out on qualifying as a team, placing fifth.
However, Wyatt Richardson advanced as an individual and earned All-District honors by placing 11th with a time of 17:38. He was followed by Dayton Schuerman, Brian Myers, Hayden Tomlinson, and Danil Lichtensteiger.

The Lady Lancers finished second to No. 1 Minster, and were led by Madison Langdon who placed 8th overall in a career best time of 19:59 to qualify for regionals as an individual. She was followed by teammate Julia Stetler who finished 18th (21:15). Victoria Snyder placed 21st (21:37), Madeline Snyder was 23rd (21:44), and Brayden Langdon finished 24th (21:50). Rounding out the scoring was Rylee Byrne (36th) and Dylann Carey (51st).

“The girls ran their best race of the season,” Langdon said. “We knew we had to run well to advance as there were five or six really strong teams in our race.”

“I challenged the girls earlier in the week and they responded. If we continue to bring this kind of fight to the regional meet, we will have a chance to advance as a team. Madison set the pace by placing very high in an incredibly strong individual field. We were able to finish the race strongly, and that made the difference. I am excited to see what we can do next weekend. We have some competitive girls on the team that are going to fight hard to make it to Columbus.”

Meanwhile, the Crestview Lady Knights used a total team effort to finish ahead of two higher seeded teams to placed third and qualify for regionals.

The Lady Knights were led by Ragen Harting’s 11th place All District performance (20:16). She was followed by Emily Greulach who placed 16th (21:11) and also earned All District honors. Lauren Walls finished 17th and ran a personal record time of 21:12. Lizzie Bowen was 29th and Adalynn Longstreth 40th.

Division III regionals will be held Saturday in Tiffin.