Immel sisters lead Norwalk to host title

NORWALK — Another successful double-up. In more ways than one. Norwalk siblings Zuri and Xavi Immel by now are used to participating in multiple different activities on any given day. That includes playing in a high school soccer match less than two hours after running a 5K — which was the case on Saturday at the sixth annual Norwalk Trucker Invitational. But hours before the NHS girls soccer team posted a 5-2 win, Zuri and Xavi finished second and third overall to help the Truckers win their host Invite. A freshman, Xavia finished second in 19:07, while Zuri, a sophomore, was third in 19:22. Huron's Kennedy Schlessman — an All-Ohioan who placed 12th at the Division II state championships in 2021 — won the race in 18:31. Norwalk scored 29 points to edge out the Tigers, who scored 34 points. St. Paul (89) was third, followed by Clyde (103) and St. Mary Central Catholic (112). Sandusky, Willard and Perkins also had runners compete. "It's kind of hard to do both sports, but race days we don't usually do as much in the soccer match," Zuri said. "As a team, we're doing much better than last year. "We're running more together as a team and inspiring and pushing each other." Just as key as Xavi and Zuri finishing second and third, the Truckers had three more runners finish among the top 10. Isabel Ott (20:53) placed fifth, while Maddison Trenor (21:54) was ninth and Kylie Moser (22:01) was 10th. Kayli Bergman (23:18) in 16th and Melody Seager (24:10) in 24th rounded out the Norwalk scoring. The first cooler temperatures of the season helped the lower times in Saturday's race. "It felt pretty good out there today," Xavi said. "It was a lot cooler than it has been at any meet this season, so that really helped. We definitely prefer these temperatures. "It's nice to know the course and know where you're going," she added. "It's hard when going somewhere else and you don't have time to recognize the course.I want to try to keep it consistent and get the times down more, and today is a step toward that." On top of it being a faster course, Zuri said the two sisters were helped by attempting to stay within range of Schlessman. "It's great to see a runner of Kennedy's caliber, and also know she is within reach," she said. "We just have to keep pushing to try and run with her. I think I need to get my times down more still." For St. Paul, Adele Dowdell was the top runner in 12th place in a time of 22:33. She was the first of four runners in the top 20, which included Megan Lesch (23:09) in 15th, Isabel Gross (23:53) in 19th and Sydney Endsley (23:59) in 20th. Isabel Howerton (24:06) was 23rd, followed by Jadyn Smith (25:13) in 27th and Scarlett Ross (25:21) in 28th for the Flyers. Willard's Lindsey Vogel was seventh overall in 21:44, white Haley Henry (27:05) was 44th and Thunyamon Wan (31:18) was 52nd. Norwalk will compete at the Vermilion Invitational next weekend, while St. Paul is at the Western Reserve John Speer Invitational. "We are absolutely thrilled with how the teams placed today," Norwalk coach Stephanie Pope said both the boys and girls races. "Fifteen of our runners had either season best or career best times today. I couldn't be more proud of how well everyone ran. "We really enjoyed the cooler weather this morning and had some tough competition to push everyone," she added. "We are definitely progressing the way we need to be and I can't wait to see what the rest of the season brings."