L’view boys make state 4th straight time

Van Wert independent sports

TIFFIN – One Van Wert County cross country team made it to state — for the fourth time in a row — while individual runners from the other two county teams also qualified during the regional cross country meet held at Hedges Boyer Park in Tiffin.

It was a bittersweet day for the Van Wert High School boys’ cross country team at Saturday’s Division II Regional Cross Country meet in Tiffin as the team fell short of its goal to qualify for the state meet. One Cougar, however, will be competing at next Saturday’s state meet as Cal Wolfrum placed eighth, high enough to qualify as an individual.

Wolfrum led the Cougars, covering the 5K course in 16:34. Thane Cowan was the team’s second runner, placing 31st in a time of 17:45. Gage Chiles (45th), Stephen Hamblett (50th), and Cade Chiles (61st) rounded on the scoring for Van Wert.

Freshman Jerica Huebner also capped off a stellar 2016 season with her 51st place finish in the regional girls’ race.

The Lancer boys’ cross country team competed in the Division III Tiffin regional on Saturday and finished seventh out of 22 teams and nearly 200 runners to qualify for the state meet next weekend. Lincolnview also had an individual qualifier in Austin Elick who placed 17th overall (top 28 individuals qualified). Elick finished the race in a time of 17:15. It is the fourth consecutive year that a Lancer boys’ team will be represented at the state meet.

Other varsity scorers for the Lancers were Karter Tow (34th), Alek Bowersock placing 71st, Tracey West placing 91st, and Jacob Keysor 103rd. Rounding out the scoring for the Lancer boys were two freshmen, Devon Bill and Joe Sadowski.

“It was a bittersweet day,” said Lincolnview Coach Matt Langdon. “It is a tremendous accomplishment to qualify for the state meet as a team and we do not take that for granted, but the boys had high expectations for this meet and we did not finish like we were capable.

“Now, they have motivation for next week to prove that they are a better team than we showed today,” Coach Langdon added. “What these boys were able to do, particularly the seniors, is not an easy task. To run at the state meet four years in a row is a tremendous accomplishment and one that takes an incredible amount of hard work.”

The Lincolnview coach also had praise for Elick, who also qualified as an individual with a 17th-place finish (top 28 individuals qualified).

“I was very proud of Austin today,” Langdon said. “He qualified for the state meet as an individual in a very large and tough field of runners. It was a proud moment to see him cross the line in a qualifying position.  Karter also had a strong race, just missing qualifying individually by 6 or 7 seconds. That is a great race for a sophomore.”

Also qualifying as an individual was Crestview’s Ashley Bowen, who finished 11th in the girls’ race in a time of 19:38.57.