Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Head coach Nathan Howard returns for his seventh year in charge of the cross country program at Eastwood.
Last year’s boys squad finished second at the NBC Championship. They followed with a fifth-place finish at districts before placing 14th at regionals, and that team will have to replace the now-graduated Henry Howard.
“He was a great leader and team captain,” Nathan Howard said. “We’ll need some guys to fill that void for sure.”
Among the key returners for the Eagles are senior Ben Buehler, who finished third in the NBC last year with a personal record of 16:53; junior Oliver St. Louis, who was 16th in the NBC and had a PR of 18:25; sophomore Zach McClure, who was 15th in the NBC with an 18:20 PR, and sophomore Cole Schimmoeller, who was 14th at the NBC and had a PR of 18:31.
As for newcomers, junior Scott McKenzie will be with the team full-time this year after splitting time with soccer a season ago. He could step into their top five immediately.
“He loves running and has a ton of potential,” Howard said.
The boys have a smaller freshmen class overall, but Howard believes Matthew Ward Jr. and Caleb Shaffer-Hoffmann will help the team out quite a bit.
“Matthew had a nice middle school cross country season last year, and Caleb is just starting out as a distance runner but had a great middle school track career at Genoa,” Howard said.
Overall, Howard believes the boys team should be in the mix for an NBC title and that Buehler should compete for the individual title.
“They are really coming together right now, and they seem very motivated to have a strong season,” he said. “We return six of our top seven runners from last year, and we have three to four more runners joining us this year that I think could help us. We may not have the one to two dominant runners that other schools have, but our boys team will be a very deep team overall. We could have four to five guys in the top 14 of the NBC if we can put things together right.”
On the girls side, last year’s team finished third at the NBC Championship, which also included a fifth-place finish at districts before recording an 18th-place placement at regionals.
The Eagles will have to replace six seniors, including all their team captains. Among that group, Lilly Beckwith and Caitlyn Stiner were both consistently in the top five last year, and Howard said they will need some people to fill in for their scoring and leadership.
Among those returning, senior Raegan Russell was 13th in the NBC last year with a PR of 21:22. Fellow senior Brynn Sheets finished 15th and notched a 21:20 PR, and sophomore Melody Myers was 18th in the league while notching a 21:56 PR.
As far as newcomers, Howard is looking for juniors Kylie Mathia and Ginger Rubel, along with sophomore Kylie Sikora, to have much bigger roles than they did last year.
“Our girls don't have quite as much depth (as the boys),” Howard said. “We have our top three runners back in Brynn, Raegan and Melody, and they will be our team's strength, but after that we are a bit unproven. We also don't have many freshmen on this year's team, so we won't be nearly as deep as we've been in past years. Our hope is that our girls' team can stay healthy and keep improving every week. There is definitely the potential for another top-three finish in the league, but we've got some work to do to get there.”
