VW County CC runners ready for state

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

After a one week delay, this year’s cross country season will come to a close on Saturday with the 2018 Cross Country State Championships at National Trail Raceway in Hebron, and Van Wert County will be well represented.

The season finale was scheduled for last Saturday but was postponed due to flooding at the site. Now, Lincolnview’s boys’ and girls’ teams, the Crestview Lady Knights and Van Wert’s Caylee Phillips are ready for the biggest cross country stage of the year.

The Lancers will run at 11 a.m. Saturday, and the Lady Lancers and Lady Knights will run at 1:30 p.m. Phillips will run at 2:15.

Lincolnview Lancers and Lady Lancers (Division III)

Last week’s rare postponement caught a number of runners, coaches and fans off-guard, but Lincolnview head coach Matt Langdon immediately discussed the situation with his team.

“We met last Thursday as a team and discussed what we would do in terms of our training,” Langdon explained. “The team was in a great frame of mind and I believe we feel very good about what we have done with these extra seven days.”

“We adopted a college type training routine as college teams typically have two weeks in between their races. There is no question that the extra week is going to affect the race, it all depends on whether each athlete and team are able to turn this into an advantage.”

Langdon reflected back on the season, which was a successful one for the Lancers and Lady Lancers.

“Both of our teams have improved in terms of closing down our 1-5 gap time,” Langdon stated. “Our kids do a great job of training over the summer so we came into the season in pretty good shape.”

“We pushed hard during the part of the season that was so hot and humid and once it finally cooled off, we saw our times begin to drop. As the season progressed, we were able to lower our top 5 average by getting our pack to finish closer to our lead runners.”

“On the boys side, Alek Bowersock, Karter Tow, and Jacob Keysor have had incredible careers with our program,” Langdon continued. “Each is an individual State qualifier and member of a State qualifying team, and each of the boys have qualified for the State meet all four years of their high school careers.”

“These guys have led by example and have set the tone for the rest of the boy’s team. They are going to leave a strong legacy for the underclassmen. It’s hard to put into words how much they have meant to the program.”

“On the girls side, we had one individual State qualifier in Madison Langdon as well as our team qualifying. As a sophomore, Madison has worked incredibly hard over the summer and carried that into the season to put herself into a position to lead our team back to State for the second consecutive season. Having a true frontrunner certainly helped our girl’s team this season.”

Crestview Lady Knights (Division III)

The Lady Knights showed steady improvement throughout the season, leading to a spot at the State meet.

“We are thankful that our team was committed to continuous improvement,” Crestview head coach Jeff Bagley said. “They just kept getting better. First , it happened in practice, and the practices we chart kept showing hard evidence that our effort was being reflected with faster practice times. That then carried over into the meets.”

“This group was led by our seniors of Hannah Weaver, Lauren Schumm, Lizzie Bowen and Savannah Smith who all set a positive tone to our season. The girls team had a great summer of training which culminated in this team becoming tight knit at cross country camp in August.”

“At camp, they selected the team word for this season to be overcome. It was a great pick and very appropriate for this group. We are thankful that our team became physically more healthy as the season progressed. They all did a solid job of taking care of the little things so the big things could happen. We have a lot to be thankful for.”

Ragen Harting has been the leader for Crestview this season, and Bagley noted she received some mentoring from a former Lady Knight.

“Ragen has been consistent with her prep work and has been intentional about doing the right extra things outside of practice to get better,” Bagley explained. “I am thankful for and I know Ragen is appreciative of the influence that Ashley Bowen has had on Ragen the prior two seasons.”

“Ragen had the opportunity to train with and learn from Ashley (Bowen is the Crestview cross country record holder). There is no doubt that the experience of watching how Ashley approached practice and competition has helped Ragen and ultimately our entire team.”

While Harting has led the charge this season, a number of other Lady Knights displayed significant improvement during each outing.

“Emily Greulach has been our consistent No. 2 runner, was honorable mention NWC and All-District honors,” Bagley said. “Lauren Walls is our No. 3 runner and was honorable mention NWC. Lizzie Bowen is our No. 4 runner and has been a great leader on our team.”

“Adalynn Longstreth has been our No. 5 runner through the tournament,” Bagley continued. “She has displayed great tenacity coming back from surgery to put herself in a position to help the team. Our sixth and seventh runners, Kenzie Leeth and Lydia Saylor have worked hard to come back from injuries to help our team.”

Caylee Phillips (Division II)

After a highly successful regular season, Caylee Phillips won sectional, district and regional titles, and is now eyeing a Division II state title.

“To be honest, I am not surprised by her accomplishments,” Van Wert head coach Ryan Holliday said. “She’s a kid that we always knew was capable of the type of success she has had this season.”

“It was simply a matter of her putting in the right kind of work, getting enough experience, and gaining enough confidence. She’s been slowly growing in those areas since her freshman year and it is finally all coming together for her. The crazy thing is that we are just beginning to see what she can do. Her ceiling is incredibly high.”

Holliday went on to explain what Phillips has meant to the team, not just in terms of victories.

“Obviously, having an athlete that you can count on to finish near or at the top of every race is huge from a racing standpoint,” Holliday said. “But beyond that, she has played a key role as our team captain in pushing our culture forward – not necessarily because of her on-the-course success, but because of who she is and the intangibles she brings to the table.”

“That said, not to take anything away from her, but when I think of our team, I don’t think just of Caylee. Like I said, she has played a key role. But she was just one piece of many valuable pieces for us this year that helped create a really healthy culture that will allow for future success of Caylee and the rest of the girls.”

As far as the one week State postponement, Holliday believes Phillips could use it to her advantage.

“We know that there are other teams and individuals out there who were more affected than Caylee by the postponement,” Holliday stated. “She knows that the postponement has created an opportunity for her to gain an advantage on her competition at the State meet.”

“This week has been more of a normal week, which has been nice for her. So I think if she is able to show up on Saturday and kind of tune out everything that has gone on in the last two weeks and just run her race, she will be really pleased with her result.”