VW Cougars run at OHSAA Invite

VW independent sports/submitted information

HEBRON — The Van Wert High School boys and girls cross country teams competed in the first invitational of their respective seasons at the OHSAA Early Season Invitational, held Saturday at National Trail Raceway in Hebron, site of state cross country championship races.

This year’s featured many of the top teams from around Ohio.

On the boys side, the Cougars finished a respectable 10th in a highly competitive field of 17 teams. Sophomore Hunter Sherer led Van Wert with a 12th place finish, covering the 3.1 mile course in 17:37.

Fellow sophomore Gage Wannemacher followed Sherer, placing 29th with a time of 18:37. Freshman Jayden Welker ran his first high school race and placed 41st in a time of 19:13, and he received the team’s “Cougar Pride Award” for his hard work and effort.

Sophomore Jacob Sealscott (107th, 21:24), and sophomore Bobby Spath (120th, 22:31) rounded out the scoring for Van Wert.

Meanwhile, the Lady Cougars finished seventh out of 14 teams, led by senior Caylee Phillips’ seventh place finish. Competing against some of the best Division II runners in Ohio, Phillips crossed the finish line with a time of 20:20.

Junior Rachel Spath was Van Wert’s second finisher, placing 39th with a time of 23:44. The freshman duo of Kyra Welch and Tyra McClain were the 3rd and 4th finishers, respectively, for Van Wert. Welch placed 43rd in 23:54 while McClain finished in 52nd place with a time of 24:35. Welch was the recipient of the team’s Cougar Pride Award on the girls’ side because of her strong performance . Senior Ali Gemmer (57th, 24:47) rounded out scoring for the Lady Cougars.

“Today was an opportunity to get our first race under our belts and see where we are at,” Van Wert head coach Ryan Holliday said. “We’ve put a lot of work in over the summer and recent weeks and it was great to finally get out there and race.”
“The state course is tough, and Saturday’s weather was quite warm, but definitely we had some solid performances to build on, Holliday added. “We learned a lot about ourselves today and plan on using these races to get better.”

The teams will compete again Saturday at the Delphos St. John’s Blue Jay Invitational.