(Story originally appeared November 14th, 2018)
By: Nate Calvin
The State Cross Country Championships were delayed a week due to heavy flooding on the course at National Trail Raceway in Hebron as the runners still faced muddy conditions along with very cold temperatures last Saturday.
The Wauseon duo of Michael Cheezan and Maggie Duden both had strong showings in Division II with Cheezan placing 36th with a time of 17:18 and Duden was 83rd in a time of 20:47 in the girls’ race.
In Division III boys’ action, sophomore Max Leppelmeier of Pettisville was the top runner from Williams and Fulton County by coming home in 35th (17:23) and teammate Logan Rufenacht was 57th with a time of 17:39. Edgerton’s Coby Jones finished with a time of 17:55.3 to place 88th and Brett Merillat of Fayette was right behind him in 89th with a time of 17:55.6. Noah Fisher of Ayersville was the Division III Boys Champion with a time of 16:14.
The Archbold Lady Bluestreaks placed third in the team standings with 139 points as they tied with West Liberty-Salem but won the tiebreaker to take the third spot. Archbold was paced by Kylie Sauder in 12th (19:44), Dakota Stamm placed 26th (20:12), Riley Gwynne finished 42nd (20:37), Karley Ramirez was 50th (20:45), Reagan Ramirez came home in 90th place (21:36), Brittney Ramirez placed 104th (21:49), and Camryn Hudson was 116th (22:08). Both Sauder and Stamm earned All-Ohio distinction with their finishes.
Sarah Schwan of Evergreen closed out her high school cross country career by placing 41st with a time of 20:34
Nate can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com