Sept. 27, 2022
Fall weather was on tap at the Triad High School, as local runners set to square off and show their summer fitness in front of fields of turning beans, autumn leaves and chilled fans. It was cold enough that the concessions stand inside the high school lobby was the hot place to be. Pizza was the meal of choice for the fans and coaches alike, but cold humble pie was all that was being served for the Panther teams out on the cross country course.
The middle school girls races shot off right at 5pm. The Panthers’ Ava Lahmers withstood the early pace from the lead pack and then surged 800 meters into the race to take a commanding lead that she would not relent, finishing 1st in a time of 13:55.9. As Ava cleared the field her teammate Sadie Miller worked steadily to pick of runners a long the way finishing 3rd. “It was a good night for our girls; we had a few girls that didn’t run tonight so that slowed us as a team a little bit and Ben Logan and North Union are tough,” remarked Coach Katie Rohrer about the girls race. It was a battle at the top for the team too. By 3 points, North Union (56) prevailed over Ben Logan (59) and the Panthers (83) finished 3rd. Marla Chapman (27/24) 16:44.3, Izzy Miller (28/26) 16:58.6 and Prairie Bailey (34/31) 17:52.4 locked in the scoring for the middle school girls Panther team.
And then the middle school boys, “pow”!!!! It was 5:30 and the official sent the field off with a single shot of his gun. It was a ferocious start for the lead pack that attempted to maintain pace with Eli Noble of London. “He took it out fast, I had to regroup and focus on my own race,” noted Fairbanks Elton Bailey after his 4th place finish in 12:51.4. The team scoring was tight across the board showing 5 teams all working hard for the team titles and trophies, scores 1. North Union (58) 2. London (61) 3. Graham (65) 4. Ben Logan (66) 5. Fairbanks (77). The Panthers rounded out their scoring with Henry Thrush (23/15) 15:05.9, Gabe Bertin (31/21) 16:15.3, Leo Bosworth (32/22) 16:32.2, and Brady Adams (34/24) 16:49.9.
6:00pm. The middle school races had both finished and the high school girls took and toed the start line, “Bang”!!! and out onto the course. Lady Panthers athlete Rachael Hoover commanded the girls race early on her way to 1st place overall in 20:38.1. “The goal was to really see how the other girls (opponents) were going to run and go with it. Last year this race was more of a struggle for me, so I felt good today and happy with my results,” said Rachael about her efforts. The rest of the field of runner showed a lot of movement up and down leaving the team title a toss up to the very end 1 point short of the infamous displacer tie breaker. Team Scores were as follows: 1. Ben Logan (55) 2. Mechanicsburg (56) 3. Fairbanks (66) 4. North Union (101) 5. London (115) 6. Urbana (153) 7. Graham (181) 8. Springfield (191). Panther Individuals: 4th Elaina Lahmers (4) 21:42.8, 8th Mara Vicari (7) 22:04.8, 28th Elizabeth Philippo (26) 25:16.00, 30th Hannah Neihaus (28) 25:19.4, 34th Meredith Reinhard (31) 26.33.4, 56th Marisa Wenger (42) 29:38.2, 66th Nicole Nabbale 34:52.0, 67th Riley Jones 35:02.3.
The final race of the evening kicked off at 6:30pm. Again the lead pack showed fire in their legs despite the cooler fall weather. Mechanicsburg displayed their fitness just after the first mile as their lead runners ran away from the field lead by Will Negley. Zeke Gingerich was in hot pursuit but fell back to 4th by the end of the race to lead the Panthers in a time of 18:20.7. Just like the high school girls race, there was a pack of well match teams racing it out for the team title with only 14 points separating the top 4 teams: 1. Urbana (63) 2. Mechanicsburg (68) 3. Ben Logan (72) 4. Fairbanks (77). Urbana quietly stunned the field with strong pack running to take home the overall team title. Caleb Wenger (13/11) 19:14.9, Cameron Nisly (20/18) 19:59.6, JJ Meihls (22/20) 20:04.3, Nicholas Johnson (27/24) 20:25.6, Bryce Nisly (32/27) 20:48.1, Nathan Parks (35/29) 21:12.7, Nicholas Powell (35) 21:12.9, Tim Staton (71) 28:26.4 represented the Panthers
Asked for comment Coach Van Winkle, dressed in a Fairbanks ugly sweater and some stylish b-boy athletic pants, said of the races, “This a fun local meet with a lot of old rival schools. All of there kids have been working hard and it shows in the scores. It’s a great example of how just a couple of points and couple of places are the difference. Getting early position and running strong or taking opportunities to run down opponents late are signals for who wins these types of meets. Overall we ran well, many of our runners had improved times compared to this meet last year, so that’s a positive to take away. A couple first places, Ava and Rachael, was great to see. We also got served some humble pie today and we got a full belly of it, so, we are going to get back to work, sharpen up, and be ready to race on Saturday.”
The Panthers are back in action this Saturday. The High School will be traveling to Pickerington North for the Panther XC Invitational while the Middle School goes to the old London Country Club for the Erin L. Nance Fall Classic.
Results Link - Finishtiming.com
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