Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
A pair of notable invitationals on Aug. 29 highlighted the start to cross country season for several area teams this past week.
In the Norm Bray Invitational at Walsh Park in Fremont that morning, Northwood’s boys and girls teams competed, as well as Waite’s boys team.
For the Rangers, Mitchel Fowler (19:56.70) finished 65th in the boys race. Malakai Lamphier (25:17.00), Kaleb Mata (25:27.10), Christian Herrera (26:32.00) and Alexander Mannon (27:56.00) also competed with the group all finishing between 106th and 112th. As a team, Northwood finished 13th overall.
On the girls side, Emily Reichow’s 21:15.40 finished in 24th to lead her team, while Veronica Fowler (25:04.60), Emma Kovacs (28:01.00) and Hazel Shields (31:52.40) were 76th, 91st and 102nd, respectively.
For the Indians, Oscar Valdez (19:01.00) and Cristian Hernandez-Galvan (19:06.10) finished 53rd and 54th overall, while Joelle Turner (21:55.90) and Sebastian Lopez (23:26.40) were 83rd and 98th, respectively.
Northwood’s girls and Waite’s boys didn’t place as a team due to having fewer than five runners. In total, 16 teams competed in the event. Bowling Green won the boys event, while Fremont Ross won the girls.
Later that evening, the fourth annual Darin Goodman Night Race took place in Pemberville with runners from Eastwood, Lake, Woodmore, Clay and Oak Harbor competing.
On the boys side, Eastwood had 13 runners compete, which included seven that finished among the top 100, for a fifth-place finish as a team. Ben Buehler (17:07.3) placed 13th, while Cole Schimmoeller (17:33.3) and Caleb Shaffer-Hoffmann (17:54.2) were 24th and 37th. Zachary McClure (18:37.0) was next in the group in 60th.
Lake had 16 runners compete, led by Frank Swails III, who finished in 17:39.3 to place 30th as the Flyers finished 12th overall. Tyce Brown (18:24.3) and Vincent Mass (19:29.0) placed 53rd and 86th, respectively. Maxwell Morse (19:56.4) and Ricky Fox III (19:57.00) were also 105th and 106th.
Woodmore had a group of 13 runners that placed 18th overall as a team. Marcus Schroder (19:57.7) and Liam Combs (19:58.3) were a team-best 107th and 108th individually. Cooper Martin (20:18.6) was next best in 130th.
Clay placed 23rd overall as a team with 11 individuals having competed, led by seniors Max Miller (20:38.1) and Brecken Hower (21:23.3), who were 145th and 170th. Casey Stewart Jr. (21:34.9) was next best in 181st.
Declan Sloan was the lone runner on the boys side for Oak Harbor as he finished in 18:11.4 and placed 49th.
St. Francis won the boys race as a team, and Cole Zang of Margaretta won the individual title in 15:32.13.
On the girls side, Eastwood and Lake finished back-to-back in 12th and 13th place. The Eagles had three runners in the top 50, including Melody Myers (21:54.6), Brynn Sheets (21:59.5) and Raegan Russell (22:11.6) in 38th, 40th and 44th. Eastwood had eight runners compete overall.
The Flyers, meanwhile, had four runners within the top 100 among 11 total participants, including Julia Swartz (22:52.8, 60th), Belle Tippey (23:12.6, 72nd), Lauren Wheeler (23:16.9, 75th) and Victoria Wilkins (24:07.7, 95th).
Clay finished 17th as a team with eight runners, highlighted by Audrey Miller’s 94th place finish in 24:04.1. Next best individually were Ella Adams (24:36.3) and Lydia Maletich (24:59.7) in 110th and 120th.
Woodmore had five individuals compete for a 19th place finish, led by fourth underclassmen plus a junior. Peyton Damschroder (23:51.3) and Hazel Baranowski (23:57.4) were 90th and 93rd as the two top 100 finishers for the Wildcats, who also saw Ayla Henn finished 133rd in 25:33.9.
While they didn’t receive a team placement due to having four runners, Oak Harbor was led by Olivia Cherry, who finished 21st in 20:40.7. Reese Wittman (23:07.1) and Leah Fleckner (23:20.2) also finished among the top 80 in 68th and 77th. Amelia Reinbolt (24:47.0) was the final runner in 119th.
Huron won the girls race as a team, and Natalie Nixon of Ottawa Hills won the individual title in 18:29.71.
The Darin Goodman Night Race honors the memory of Darin Maverick Goodman, a former student and runner who graduated with honors in 2011 from Eastwood and magna cum laude in 2016 from the University of Toledo with a degree in chemical engineering.
A global project engineer for Air Products out of Allentown, Pa., Goodman had an affinity for traveling globally, seeing 14 countries and 29 states before passing away tragically while overseas on June 30, 2018, at the age of 25.
Organizers call the event a “unique, fun and competitive five-kilometer race” to start the cross country season.
The night course went through the lit-up pass in the woods behind Eastwood’s football stadium and finished under the lights at Jerry Rutherford Stadium.
“It gets bigger and better every year,” Eastwood head coach Nathan Howard said. “We learn more every year. Our first year was a disaster. I don’t know why teams came back, and then this year, it was just an amazing thing with great teams and great competition. The assistant coaches spend probably 40 hours a week putting this on. It’s awesome.”
