Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
The Eastwood girls and Oak Harbor boys claimed team titles at the Northern Buckeye Conference (NBC) Championship on May 15 at Genoa High School.
On the girls side, Eastwood captured its first championship since 2022 with 140.5 points, edging out Otsego (134) and Oak Harbor (133). Genoa (82.5) and Lake (48) finished fourth and sixth, respectively.
Eastwood, which finished as the runner-up on the girls side the past two seasons, captured titles in three events, highlighted by the 4x200 and 4x100 relay teams. The 4x200 team of Josie Appelhans, Gabby Provo, Sophie Gillespie, and Ava Mazjun clocked a meet record of 1:45.27, topping the 1:47.60.
The 4x100 team of Macie Bradley, Appelhans, Macy Shoemaker, and Lauren Schuerman also established a new meet record time of 49.92. Both records were established last year by Oak Harbor.
“It was amazing,” Schuerman said. “The positivity was the best. We all just went after it, and we just did amazing. We just work so hard, and I feel like we have so much more in us. We have so many more opportunities, and I'm really excited for the rest of the season.”
Appelhans captured the crown in the 200-meter dash, delivering a 26.00 time to edge out Otsego’s Molly Kramer (26.33), Schuerman (26.45), and Lake’s Savannah Little (26.69).
Appelhans won the 200, competed on the two first-place relay teams, and was the runner-up in the 100. Schuerman and Camille Foos also finished 3-4 in the long jump, while Foos took third in the high jump behind Otsego’s McCabe sisters. Skylar Chrisman (T-3rd) and Piper Sutton (5th) finished among the top five in pole vault.
For Oak Harbor, Abigail Coutcher won the long jump, finished second in the pole vault, captured fourth in the 100 hurdles, was part of the 4x100 relay team that finished second, and checked in eighth in the 300 hurdles.
As a senior, Coutcher said she gave it everything she had to win the long jump, especially against several tough competitors, including the girls field athlete of the meet, Genoa’s Kyra Frasure.
“It was definitely a good experience,” Coutcher said. “I definitely have to stay humble, though. Those were a lot of good athletes. It was by a little. It’s a team effort to win everything.”
In the running events, Oak Harbor’s Hayley Fallgren, Olivia May, Kendall Gaines, and Olivia Cherry won the titles in the 4x800 and 4x400 relays. The Rockets also finished runner-up in the 4x200 and 4x100.
May and Fallgren finished 1-2 in the 400 meter dash, while Cherry won the 100 meter and 800 meter competitions. Gaines was third in the 1600 and fourth in the 800 meter.
In field competition, Alayna Hall had a season-best 118-11 in the discus to finish fourth.
For Genoa, Frasure was the runner up in long jump behind Coutcher, and she finished third in the pole vault.
“Kyra holds herself to a high standard and puts in a ton of work, so she deserves the field athlete of the meet,” Genoa coach Luke Hodulik said.
Lynde Hartman won the discus, breaking a 46-year-old school record, and Lindsey Brown dusted the competition in the 300 hurdles with an NBC meet record time, and Hodulik said she is top five in the state in that event.
Brown also finished second in the 100 hurdles behind Otsego’s Molly Kramer.
“She’s just very intense,” he said. “She gets after it all the time. No matter what the weather is or how she feels or anything, she's going to go 100 percent all the time.”
Hodulik was happy with his team’s overall performance on the girls side, which also included a third-place finish from Stella Rethman in the 3200 meter.
“The girls were projected fifth, and we jumped up to fourth, and it was a strong fourth, too,” he said. “They really showed up. And that's kind of another story of the season. Every meet we've had, just about everyone on the team has showed up and performed. I'm really proud of them.
For Lake, Julia Swartz placed in four events, ranking fourth in the 3200 meter, fifth in the 1600 meter, and sixth in the 800 meter. She was also a member of the all-freshmen 4x800 runner-up relay team that also included Belle Tippey, Macey Maguire, and Kali Kos.
Tippey finished eighth in the 1600 meter, where she broke a six-minute mile time. Little was fourth in the 200 meter and fifth in the 100 meter, while helping the 4x200 team that was third. Kallie Ferrara also had a solid day, finishing seventh in both the pole vault and 100 hurdles, along with being a member of the 4x100 team that finished third. Maguire was also successful as a member of the seventh-place 4x400 and the third-place 4x100 teams as well as the all-freshman squad in the 4x800.
Kara Wasserman and Sagan Schroyer were members of the 4x200 and 4x100 teams. Kali Kos was on the 4x200 team, while the trio of Tabitha Balsmeyer, Kennedy Watkins, and Madelyn Osborn helped comprise the 4x400 team.
Oak Harbor, Eastwood, Genoa finish 1-2-3
Oak Harbor claimed the boys crown with 171 points, topping Eastwood (161.5) in a close battle. Genoa (76) finished third, while Lake (53.5) was fifth.
Wyatt Augsburger, who was named the athlete of the meet, produced new meet records while winning the 110 hurdles and the 100 meter dash for Oak Harbor, and he also won the 300 hurdles.
He was also happy because he topped former teammate Tyler Thompson’s meet record of 10.94 in the 100 meter dash. Augsburger ran it in 10.88.
“It was a pretty good day,” Augsburger said. “The 100 (meter dash) I definitely was really happy about. I really wanted that because I can hang it over Tyler’s head a little bit, but it was good. The 110s weren’t bad, the 300s, it was okay. As long as I did it for the team, that’s all that matters.”
Zavier Hess captured the crown in the long jump, while the 4x100 team of Colton Spencer, Hess, Micah Miller, and Jeven Buehler won the 4x100 relay.
Bodee Miller, after finishing third in the 1600 meter, captured the title in the 800 meter, where Braxtin Witt also finished third with a personal record.
“Our team chemistry is great,” Augsburger said. “Everybody knows what they have to do. It's just really exciting to be part of it.”
As far as runner-up finishes, Buehler did so in the 200 meter. Spencer checked in second behind Augsburger in the 110 hurdles, and the 4x800 and 4x200 relay teams were runner-up. Ayden Gaskalla was second in pole vault.
The team of Micah Miller, Buehler, Preston Bickelhaupt, and Hess finished second in the 4x200 relay.
Travis Bouyer and Matthew Hubans finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the shot put. In discus, Bouyer was runner-up, while Hubans was fifth.
“A lot of dudes stepped up,” Augsburger said. “We haven't really had everybody healthy for a while, but everybody was able to get healthy for this meet. I mean, lots of the young guys, if you couldn't tell, are just real happy because they know that they definitely did better than they were supposed to.”
For Eastwood, Hunter Lauer won the shot put and discus, Austin Miller won the 200 meter and 400 meter races, Cullen Shank won the pole vault, and three relay teams (4x800, 4x400, 4x200) placed.
Miller was named the NBC Athlete of the Year and the Co-Runner of the Meet. He finished second in the 100 meter and was a member of the 4x400 relay team that finished first.
“The whole team came to compete,” Miller said. “Everybody came in with a winning mentality, even if that's not quite how it came out. Nobody came in with a negative attitude. Everybody wanted it every step of the way. I'm really proud of the way everybody reacted.”
Lauer’s titles give him three NBC championships. His discus performance was second-best in NBC history, winning by more than five feet, and he came within a foot of his personal record.
“I was very happy to throw that (distance) again,” he said. “I feel I performed very well. I had a great practice yesterday leading into it, so I was pretty confident, and then I just was really excited to perform well today.
In relays, the 4x200 and 4x400 teams both captured titles, and the 4x100 team was runner-up. Henry Howard was a member of all three teams, while Carsyn Jones was on the 4x400 and 4x200 squads. Additionally, Ben Buehler, Casen Henline, and Cole Schimmoeller joined Howard on the 4x800 team, Cody Hefflinger was on the 4x400 team, and the duo of Zach Mullholand and Collin Brogan helped the 4x200 team.
“Our relays just kind of wanted it,” Sabo said. “It's kind of fun to run in a relay, and they wanted to win all four. Just how they went after it, we had great times because of that, even if we got beat.
Sabo was proud of guys like Miller, Mullholand, and Howard who ran four events, and how Buehler ran three events that he called a “hard triple.” He also mentioned Jones, who ran three relays.
“We just had a lot of kids that we asked to do quite a bit of events,” he said. “They asked to do quite a bit of events for the team because they knew that those points would matter. And honestly, they had a great mindset of just, once they finish, they move on to the next event. That's just kind of what they do for the team and for the program.”
Hurdlers Brayden Luidhardt, Levi Strayer, and Nolan Taylor each placed in their events. Hefflinger finished fourth in the 400-meter dash and eighth in the 100-meter dash.
“He got after it in that 100 and the 400,” Miller said of Hefflinger. “That's a brutal double. He really came out, showed up, and did everything he could. We had several other people that did the same.”
For Genoa, the relay teams performed really well. The 4x400 team of Braden Lesher, Sam Buehler, Isaac Schimmoeller, and Luke Kimpon was the runner-up. The Comets also finished third in the 4x200 and 4x800, and they checked in fourth in the 4x100.
Lesher finished second in the 1600, while Chase Cooper was fourth in that race, while also winning the 3200.
A freshman, Kimpon, was third in 100 meter dash. Buehler and Kimpon finished second and third, respectively, in the 400 meter.
“I'm happy with how we performed, the boys team in particular,” Hodulik said. “We were looking to take top three and we did. We started off a little slow on Wednesday, kind of underperformed in a couple of events.
“We talk about staying strong and giving it everything, no matter what, and the boys team came back really strong and ended up taking third anyways even after underperforming a little bit on Wednesday and having a couple injuries.”
For Lake, Isaac Romero and Matthew Nietz finished second and third, respectively, behind Lauer in the shot put. Nietz then finished third in the discus.
Josiah Thompson finished fifth in the long jump and 100-meter dash, and he was a member of the 4x100 relay team that finished third. Tyce Brown was fifth in the 3200 and was on the 4x800 team that was sixth. Frank Swails III was also a member of that relay team, and he placed seventh in the 3200. Andrew Solomon tied for fourth in the pole vault.
Overall, Lake had four relay teams place, including three that featured Donovan Brown and Andre Clinton, as well as two from Kamryn McDaniel and Ezekiel Ackerman. Cooper Ogg was also a member of the 4x100 team that finished third, while Maxwell Morse helped lead the 4x800 team to a sixth-place finish, and Roelino Maya helped the 4x400 team to a seventh-place finish. The 4x200 team checked in fifth overall.
AREA ROUNDUP
Woodmore’s girls finished third the SBC, while the boys were fourth. Both were bests among Press-area teams in the SBC. Gibsonburg’s boys were sixth, and the girls were 11th. Northwood’s girls were eighth, and the boys were 10th.
For Woodmore, the relay teams dusted the competition. On the boys side, the 4x200 team of Auden Hemminger, Lucas Caldwell, Coleton Shaner, and Landon Rich won the title. On the girls side, the Wilcats swept all four relays, including the 4x100 team of Valerie Kerecz, Karli Heins, Myra Huss, and Ariana Florio, the 4x200 team with the same people, the 4x400 team of Heins, Addie Lowry, Willow Lewis, and Wren Lewis, and the 4x800 team of Willow Lewis, Peyton Damschroder, Addie Lowry, and Wren Lewis.
For Gibsonburg, Nathaniel Chafin was fifth in the 200 meter dash. Tyler Hill was fifth in the 800. Hunter Wasserman was second in the shot put and fourth in discus. Aiden Morant was fifth in long jump, while the 4x200 team of Chafin, Bryson Marinoff, Aiden Nims, and Morant was fourth, as was the 4x100 team.
On the girls side, freshman Jorja Flores finished third in the 3200 with a new PR, while also finishing fifth in the 1600 meter. Esie Oman was fifth in discus new PR, as well.
For Northwood, Emily Reichow and Gabe Lewin each finished second in pole vault. Freshman Kayla Schlegel was fourth in 400, while Mya Calvillo checked in fourth in the 300 hurdles.
For Clay, the girls finished with three individual All-NLL performances as Arianna Bench finished second in the shot put, while Emily Schultz finished third in the 300-meter hurdles and took the title in the 100 hurdles.
The 4x400 relay team of Audrey Miller, Olivia Muir, Grace Mittendorf and Jaelyn Rowe won the final event of the night.
Meanwhile, the boys finished third overall. Logan Davis and Jordan Williams finished second and third, respectively, in pole vault. Christian Stephens was third in the long jump.
Barack James was runner-up in the 110 hurdles and was a member of the runner-up 4x200 relay team that also featured JJ Medina, Williams, and Brody Csizmar.
James captured the NLL title in the 300 hurdles, and Derek Harmer won the crown in the high jump.
For Stritch, King Wilson Jr. shattered the TAAC’s meet record in the 200 meter dash, and he also broke the 36-year-old long jump record. On top of that, he won the 400 meter dash, and his performance helped the boys team finish third overall.
Connor Rowland also had a solid performance for the Cardinals, as he was fourth in the 100 meter, third in the 200 meter, and fourth in the 400 meter.
On the girls side, the 4x100 relay team of Krista Dominguez, Liah O’Brien, Chloe Kowalski, and Kristy Hernandez took home third place. Alanah Black finished third in both the shot and discus. O’Brien was fourth in the 400 meter dash, as was the 4x200 team of Dominguez, O’Brien, Kowalski, and Hernandez.
For Waite, Daveyon Holman was third in the 100 and 200 meter races. Dezmend Jackson was fifth in the 400 meter. Christian Hernandez-Galvan was fourth in the 3200 meter. The Indians relay teams in the 4x100, 4x200, and 4x800 finished third, and the 4x400 team was fifth.
On the girls side, Waite’s 4x400 relay team finished fourth. Jayla Taylor was fourth in the long jump. Ladaija Calhoun was sixth in the 100 hurdles.
