Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
The Oak Harbor girls track and field team captured the Northern Buckeye Conference Championship on May 16.
The Rockets accumulated 163 points, which was ahead of Eastwood in second place with 129.5. Genoa and Lake finished fourth and sixth, respectively, as a team.
"What was really cool about the NBC records was that it didn't just come from one individual,” Oak Harbor coach John McKitrick said. “It took 10 girls to work together to accomplish those five records, four of them being relay records. It says that the program has lots of depth and is getting back to where we were just a few years back.
“That makes me super proud to see them on the right path and aiming big. Those records give the girls the inclination that they're on the right path going into districts."
Oak Harbor's Olivia Cherry was the Performer of the Meet for the track events, and Bella Lake was the Co-Performer of the Meet for the field events.
The Rockets won 11 straight Sandusky Bay Conference titles from 2010-21, but this group of seniors had never won a league title.
"The seniors didn't want to graduate without winning a league title,” McKitrick said. “It was really important to them. I've had very few teams that were able to put it together like they did. Every event went either according to play or better — most went better than expected.
“Our biggest worry wasn't so much how our kids would perform. We were really nervous about how motivated Eastwood would be. They have a very talented team that was capable of catching ours. This meant that we needed to keep the Eagle uniforms behind the Rockets as much as possible. Our team matched their enthusiasm pretty well in every event."
Lake’s vault of 10-8 breaks her own school record and is the second best vault in NBC history. Cherry broke her own school record and the NBC record in the 400. She also anchored two relays that broke the NBC records — the 4x400 and 4x800. The 4x800 also broke the school record.
Cherry ran a 56.78 in the 400, good for a new NBC record, and was followed by Lake's Savannah Little (58.29) and Oak Harbor's Hayley Fallgren (1:01.46).
As for Little, she won the 100 in 12.83, followed by Eastwood's Josie Appelhans (13.17) and Oak Harbor's Miyanna Gardner (13.25).
Oak Harbor’s relay teams also had four first place finishes, and every one of their times was a new meet record.
The 4x800 relay of Hayley Fallgren, Cherry, Kennedy Slates and Kendall Gaines won in 9:36.16. The 4x200 of Gardner, Olivia May, Avery Mikolas and Abigail Coutcher had a time of 1:47.60. The 4x100 of Gardner, May, Lake and Effie Schulte ran in 50.08, and the 4x400 of May, Schulte, Slates and Cherry had a time of 4:08.45.
Lake won the pole vault with a leap of 10 feet, eight inches, followed closely by her teammate, Addison Coutcher, who finished with a jump of 10 feet, 4 inches.
Little won the 200 in 26.14, followed by Appelhans (26.15) and Cherry (26.83).
Lake's Lauren Parsons won the long jump with a leap of 17 feet, 4.25 inches, followed by Abigail Coutcher (16-9.75) and Genoa's Kyra Frasure (16-03.75).
Eastwood's Leah Emch had a great showing, finishing first in the 1600 (5:31.90) and the 3200 (12:22.34), respectively.
Genoa's Stella Rethman was second in the 3200 in 12:27.93 and third in the 1600 in 5:40.42.
Gaines was second in the 800 (2:23.14), and Slates finished just over one second behind her in 2:24.21.
Eastwood's Mallory Sandberg finished second in the 100 hurdles in 16.66 and Oak Harbor's Camdyn Fauver was third in 16.68. Genoa's Lindsey Brown was second in the 300 hurdles in 46.36.
Oak Harbor's Alayna Hall was third in the shot put with a throw of 35-11.25, and Eastwood's Camille Foss was third in the high jump with a leap of 4-10.00.
Clay finishes third in NLL Cardinal
Clay had four second-place finishes and four third place finishes to come in third as a team in the Northern Lakes League Cardinal Division Championship behind Fremont Ross and Napoleon, respectively.
Emma Martin was second in the 110 hurdles in 15.69 and was third in the high jump with a leap of five feet,
Makenna Langford finished second in the 300 hurdles in 45.33 and third in the 110 hurdles in 15.78.
Emily Schultz had a second place jump of 15 feet, nine inches in the long jump, and Carly Miller was second in the pole vault with a leap of 10 feet, six inches.
Jaelyn Rowe was third in the 200 in 26.73 and Audrey Miller finished third in 1:01.31.
The Eagles 4x400 relay team of Miller, Langford, Olivia Muir, and Rowe captured first place in 4:03.06, while the 4x100 relay (51.33) and 4x200 (1:47.49) relay teams each finished second. The 4x100 team consisted of Paige Kidd, Schultz, Muir and Kieara Vartorella, while the 4x200 team was Kidd, Rowe, Muir and Langford.
Reichow wins pole vault in TAAC
Northwood’s Emily Reichow won the pole vault title with a leap of nine feet at the Toledo Area Athletic Conference Championship. Her teammate, Haleigh Baker, finished second in the same event with a jump of seven feet.
The Rangers also had a second place finish in the 100 hurdles from Monica Penaflor at 19.29, while the 4x800 relay team finished second in 12:02.74.
Cardinal Stritch's Sydney Miller was second in the long jump with a leap of 14 feet, 1.5 inches.
Woodmore third, Gibsonburg seventh in SBC River
Woodmore and Gibsonburg finished third and seventh, respectively, in the Sandusky Bay Conference River Division Championship.
The Wildcats, who won a Division III state championship two years ago, had two individuals finish in first place with one relay team winning.
"We went in hoping for a third championship in a row, but there was a sick bug running through the team at the wrong time, and some close calls didn't break our way,” Woodmore coach Lacy Seamans said. “We are still super excited with third as we have a fairly young team experience wise.
“Stella Strong winning the discus and the 4x800 really got us rolling on a good note on Tuesday. Willow Lewis obviously had a great meet as she ran the 400/800 double for the first time and won one and was all conference in the other with both being (personal records).
“We have a solid group of freshmen led by Karli Heins and Wren Lewis with Lacey Lipstraw, Valerie Kerecz and Addie Lowry contributing on the relays. We are relatively young, but along with Stella taking the discus, we can also always rely on field points from Addi Overmyer in pole vault and Lili Runion in the long jump."
Willow Lewis won the 800 in 2:25.70 and finished third in the 400 in 1:01.29. Stella Strong won the discus with a throw of 115 feet, eight inches. Lillian Runion was second in the long jump with a leap of 16 feet, three inches, and Wren Lewis was third in the 1600 in 5:36.39.
The 4x800 relay team of Wren Lewis, Addison Pleasnick, Addison Lowry and Willow Lewis won in 10:30.84.
"The 4x800 had a big improvement in time and each girl did what she needed to take home a championship," Seamans said. "We were really excited to get the track events started with a win and it's a team of all underclassmen who, I believe, all still have time to cut the next few weeks and years.
"As coaches, we really get to see the hard work pay off and get to kind of be fans of what our kids are doing on the track and in the field," she said. "We have some strong relays this year and it's always fun to see kids accomplish something big together and hopefully keep the season alive until June."
As for the Gibsonburg, McKenzie Montgomery won the pole vault with a leap of 12 feet, four inches, Ava Dawson was second in the high jump with a leap of four feet, eight inches and Mary Myerholtz was second in the 1600 in 5:34.24.
