St. Paul boys win second straight FC title

OLIVESBURG — Plead the fifth. Throughout the season, St. Paul cross country coach Bob Pabst told his state-ranked boys team that the most valuable runner on the team should be the fifth-place finisher. "Nine times out of ten, the team with the best fifth place finisher is usually the team that wins," Pabst said after Saturday's Firelands Conference championship meet at Crestview High School. "St Paul has had several FC individual champions in the past, but never a team championship until last year — as we have never had enough depth before. Like 2020, that certainly wasn't the case on Saturday. While the Flyers — ranked No. 6 in the final Division III state coaches poll — and No. 23-ranked New London each had four runners in the top 10, the Flyers had four more runners place in the 11-to-16 places to win a second consecutive conference championship. The Flyers finished with 33 points to New London's 51. Crestview (75) was third, followed by Mapleton (82), Western Reserve (143) and Plymouth (162). "They know the tighter the team, the farther we will go," Pabst said of his team. "They have really come together as a team off the course and I believe that has also helped them run better together on the course." Crestview's Tommy O'Neill was the overall race winner in 16:22. New London's Tyler Twining was next in second place at 16:40, while St. Paul's Ian Deeter (16:54) and Isaac Thimke (17:01) were third and fourth, and teammate Sebastian Gomez (17:20) was sixth. Logan Rogers was a fourth runner the top 10 for the Flyers in ninth (17:26). New London also had three others in the top 10, as Braeden Geist was seventh (17:21), Jalen Randelman (17:25) was eighth and Wyatt Harrison (17:35) was 10th. The top five runners counted toward the team scoring on Saturday, with the next two runners displaced to account for schools that entered or finished with less than five runners. Rounding out the top seven for St. Paul was Gavin Ross (17:50) in 11th and Nick Centa (17:51) in 12th, followed by David Forrest (18:06) in 14th. For New London, Owen Livingston (19:18) was 26th, Aiden Ruggles (19:43) was 32nd and Elliot Stroup and Mason Cowie had identical 19:58 times for 35th and 36th, respectively. Despite the heavy rains on Friday and overnight into Saturday, the course was in good shape. "The cold weather was actually nice for a change," Pabst said. "The real issue was the wind, especially in small races, as there is not a lot of people to draft off of. "The team knew what they had to do and they went out and did it. Very proud of them." For Western Reserve, Sean Murdock was the top placer in 18th (18:20). Aiden Perez (19:38) was 31st, Blake Caudill (20:01) was 38th, Gavin MacKeigan (20:07) was 40th and Holden Nuhn (20:29) was 44th for the 'Riders. Plymouth was paced by Landon Blankenship (18:31) in 20th and Colton Sundstrom (19:59) was 37th. Monroeville's top runner was Jimmy Clingman (21:49) in 53rd. Up next for all the area teams is the Division III district championship race at Galion. With a top 10 ranking in the state, there is little question on what the expectation level is for the Flyers. "The team is as healthy as it has been all year — our job now as coaches is to keep them healthy," Pabst said. "From here on out, I no longer care about times. It is all about position and beating the guy in front of you. One thing I have always appreciated about this team is that they have not shied away from expectation but met them head on. "That is not something you always see. I am very excited to see where they team goes, and hope that I can keep them focused enough to make it happen." GIRLS St. Paul finishes second In the girls race, it was host Crestview scoring 25 points to finish ahead of St. Paul (44) in the team standings. New London (82) was third and Mapleton (88) was fourth, followed by Western Reserve (124) and Monroeville (149). The Flyers finished with three runners among the top seven and their top five scorers were among the top 18 finishers. Adele Dowdell was second overall in 21:18 to overall race winner Morgan Welch of Crestview, who crossed the line in 19:57.Maddy McCall was fifth in 21:31 for St. Paul, while Megan Lesch was seventh (21:36). Abbie Stine (22:20) was 12th for the Flyers, followed by Dana Sumpter (22:58) in 18th and Isabel Howerton (23:09) in 20th. It was always going to be a tough assignment to beat Crestview – they have been getting stronger all year," Pabst said of the girls race. "I was extremely proud of the way the girls team ran today as four of the top five ran their best race of the year. "I can't ask for much more than that, Crestview was just the better team today," he added. "If the girls team has another good race next weekend at districts like they did (Saturday), they have real good shot at qualifying for the regionals as a team." New London was paced by Clara Good (21:57) in ninth. Madison Smith 922:49) was 16th, Alyssa Henry (22:55) was 17th, followed by Jill Joppeck (23:08) in 19th and Emily White (23:22) in 21st. Kora Landis (24:02) was 25th and Grace Crawshaw (24:13) was 28th. "Very excited to see our kids getting quicker at the right time," New London coach Keith Landis said. "We have worked hard to keep improving. There were lots of PR's for our program today. I'm hoping we can stay healthy and try to keep getting better next week at Galion." Western Reserve had a top 10 finisher in Kelsey Lasch, who was eighth in 21:43. Anastin Hoover (22:34) was 14th for the Roughriders, followed by Kaylee Kolb (25:17) in 37th, Rachael Olds (25:20) in 39th and Katie Woodruff (25:30) in 40th. Rachel Herner was 22nd in 23:25 for Monroeville, while Stacey Legg (24:04) was 26th. Also for the Eagles, Lilly Brotzki (25:09) was 35th, Avery Rosser (25:12) was 36th, and Anita Ruggles (27:02) was 47th and Anissa Ruggles (29:03) was 51st.