Cross Country: O-G girls, Van Wert boys, Lincolnview girls place well at Tiffin

TIFFIN – Ottawa-Glandorf senior Anna Buddelmeyer has confidence in her ability to outsprint the competition.

Whether it is during track season or cross country season, Buddelmeyer realizes that if she is in the hunt toward the end of the race, she has a good chance to win.

At Saturday’s Tiffin Carnival at Hedges-Boyer Park, Buddelmeyer found herself in that all-familiar situation in the Division II race.

In the final 150 meters of the race, Buddelmeyer began to separate from the lead pack and went on to win in a time of 18 minutes, 32.8 seconds on the 5,000-meter course at Hedges-Boyer Park. Wauseon’s Ella Rhoades came in a close second (18:34.3), while Hathaway Brown’s Anna Prusak finished a close third (18:36.4).

Last week at the Columbus Grove Invitational, Buddelmeyer pulled away from the competition down the stretch to win the race in a personal-best time of 18:23.8. Buddelmeyer placed sixth at last year’s Division II state cross country meet,

“I wasn’t expecting that time on this course,” Buddelmeyer said about Saturday’s race at Tiffin. “This is a very difficult course with the hill. I’ve never PR’d on this course before. I definitely wasn’t expecting that today.

“When I was coming to the 400 (-meter) mark, I was like, ‘I can’t do it’. … I was like accepting second or third. But then we came to the corner. She (Rhoades) started sprinting. … I started sprinting. I thought that if I was going to work this hard, I had to go now.”

The O-G girls team finished third out of 31 squads in Saturday’s Division II race. Hathaway Brown notched the team title with 65 points. Lexington finished a distant second with 128 points. O-G (141), Napoleon (191) and Shelby (221) rounded out the top five teams.

Rounding out the scorers (top five finishers) for O-G included Brea Recker (35th, 20:36.2), Izzy Utendorf (36th, 20:40.5), Alivia Schroeder (41st, 20:56.6) and Carly Siefker (42nd, 20:56.8). There were 226 finishers in the Division II race.

In the boys’ Division II race, it came down to a battle for second place.

Lexington’s Chance Basilone made a surge in the final 800 meters of the race and went on to win in 15:23.8.

The battle for second place came down to two familiar faces in the Western Buckeye League – O-G’s Ty Rosengarten and Van Wert’s Owen Scott.

Down the stretch, Rosengarten and Scott went to full sprint mode. Rosengarten (15:28.3) managed to hold off Scott (15:30.7) for second place.

Both Rosengarten and Scott set new school records on Saturday.

“I figured it was going to be a tactical race, but then we came through the (first) mile, and I knew it wasn’t going to be a tactical race,” Rosengarten said with a grin. “But really, throughout the race, my goal was to stay with the Lexington kid. … He led for most of it. The goal was to stick with him as long as I could and see if we could get him. We didn’t, but it was still a good race.”

Added Scott, “So, I’m not going to lie. I did not feel great coming into this race. … (It was) not like a sickness, but like a hard week of training. I felt so slow. (We went) 4:42, 4:43 through that (first mile), and I felt terrible. I had to stick with Ty and the Lexington kid, just to survive. That was my goal – to survive and not be stressed about it. I told myself, ‘It’s an early-season race. So, just have fun with it’.”

At last year’s Division II state cross country meet, as juniors, Scott placed fifth and Rosengarten came in ninth.

The Van Wert boys’ team placed fourth in Saturday’s Division II race with 148 points. Lexington won the title with 96 points. Bay (102) and Watterson (117) were second and third, respectively. O-G finished 12th out of 36 squads.

The rest of Van Wert’s scorers on Saturday included Drew Laudick (19th, 16:31.9), Johan Gemmer (41st, 17:06.4), Noah Spath (42nd, 17:06.8) and Quintin Parrish (46th, 17:13.3). There were 244 finishers.

O-G head coach James Rader was pleased at how his team, especially his frontrunners, turned it up a notch down the stretch.

“I thought they (Rosengarten and Buddelmeyer) had really nice finishes today,” Rader said. “That last stretch they had – with them being track kids – they know that’s where they need to kick it in. Both Ty and Anna understood that we needed a nice solid push. They were with others and they both pulled away at the end. So, I was really impressed at how they finished that race.”

Columbus Grove, a Division III school, chose to compete in the Division II races on Saturday. The Columbus Grove boys team placed sixth (230).

The top five runners for Columbus Grove on Saturday included Levi Bryan (28th, 16:42.6), Caiden Squillante (29th, 16:44.8), Bryce Bonifas (45th, 17:11.4), Braylon Best (64th, 17:30.6) and Zach Bryan (69th, 17:31.9).

Columbus Grove’s girls team placed 14th in Division II.

The Minster girls’ team, a Division III school, competed in Saturday’s Division I race. The Wildcats finished fifth out of 26 teams.

Minster’s scorers included Maria Niekamp (sixth, 19:09.5), Claire Bohman (19th, 19:51.7), Ava Stammen (49th, 20:54.2), Joanna Topp (58th, 21:20.5) and Madison Eilerman (61st, 21:23).

DIVISION III

In the Division III girls’ race on Saturday, Lincolnview finished third in a field of 13 squads.

Huron won the D-III title with 51 points. Ashland Crestview (76), Lincolnview (93), Ottawa Hills (101) and Archbold (130) rounded out the top five teams.

Leading the way for Lincolnview on Saturday was Brynleigh Moody with a fourth-place finish (19:35.3). Keira Breese (14th, 20:43.4), Kendall Hoffman (24th, 21:26.9), Kassidy Hammons (26th, 21:37.8) and Harper Reindel (34th, 22:17.9) rounded out Lincolnview’s scorers on Saturday. There were 89 finishers.

“The girls ran about the same average time they ran at (Columbus) Grove (Invitational) last weekend,” longtime Lincolnview head coach Matt Langdon said. “Grove has a very fast course. … This is too, with good (weather) conditions. It (Tiffin Carnival) is a good check to see how consistent you can be from what you did on Grove’s course. So, we’re really happy with them.

“We have some depth on the girls’ team. So, there are kids switching back and forth, which is good. I was really happy with how the girls raced. It was a good, solid day for them.”

On the boys’ side, Minster (third, 129), Crestview (fifth, 140) and Lincolnview (sixth, 143) had the best area finishes.

Lincolnview’s Kreston Tow had the best area individual performance in Division III as he finished seventh (16:54). Minster’s Nick Prenger came in eighth (16:58).

*Complete results of the Tiffin Carnival can be found at finishtiming.com