OBETZ, Ohio — In the hope of not being overwhelmed by the pressure of their surroundings, the Perrysburg girls cross country team did its best not to treat the Division I state meet Saturday at Fortress Obetz differently than it had its other meets this season.
The final result –– the program’s first Division I championship –– went well beyond what they were expecting to achieve.
Combined with the state runner-up finish by the Liberty Center girls team in the Division III meet earlier in the day, and it was a strong performance for the area.
“Our plan wasn’t to come here and win, so there was no pressure on the girls whatsoever,” Yellow Jackets coach Jon Monheim said. “We said you’re going to run a normal, good race, and if you do something special, maybe we can shock some teams. One through seven, every one of them ran their best race of the year.”
Senior Aubrey Duhaime led the way with a fifth-place finish in 17 minutes, 59.8 seconds as Perrysburg scored 101 points to edge Loveland (109) for the title. Gahanna Lincoln’s Alyssa Shope was first in 17:32.1.
“I’m still in shock and feel like I’m dreaming,” Duhaime said. “I’m just so proud of my team. We wouldn’t have done as well if we hadn’t worked so hard.”
Freshman Ava Beeks ran 18:26.5 to finish 13th to also reach the state podium and freshman Natalie Sanders was 25th (18:40.2) to give the program a third all-Ohio runner.
“I had no dreams that this would ever happen,” Beeks said. “The whole focus was just to run for the team and we didn’t want to make it too much of a big deal to stress us out. It was about how bad did we want it, and clearly we wanted it pretty badly.”
Also in the Division I girls race, Notre Dame finished 18th (497), with freshman Hailey Gomez finishing 107th (19:54.2) to lead the team.
Individually, Start sophomore Sinai Douglas was 31st (18:51.9), Anthony Wayne senior Ana Karmol placed 40th (19:05.1) and Fremont Ross sophomore Evelyn Szymanowski was 92nd (19:42.1).
In the Division I boys race, St. Francis placed 19th (393) and Anthony Wayne was 20th (464) as Mason (106) won the title. Sophomore Ethan Cope was 54th (16:07.3) for St. Francis and sophomore Connor Long finished 72nd (16:19.1) to lead Anthony Wayne.
Individually in that race, Bowling Green senior Aaron Partin was 65th (16:12.7), Springfield sophomore Lucien Flores placed 105th (16:38.5) and junior teammate Dominic Schlueter was 116th (16:45.4).
The Liberty Center girls wore pink uniforms and painted their hair and cheeks with pink in support of someone close to the program who is battling cancer, and their focus showed.
The Tigers finished with 108 points to earn the runner-up trophy behind Minster (66) in what will be their final meet under coach Tim Atkinson, who is stepping down.
Liberty Center was the state runner-up in 2010 and earned state titles each year from 2011-13.
“It means a lot,” sophomore MaKayla Meller said. “We worked so hard all summer to get to this point and we wanted redemption after getting third last year.”
The only senior, four-time state competitor Hope Oelkrug, led with a fourth-place finish in 18:24.8 as Maplewood’s Caleigh Richards ran 18:16.2 to win for the second year in a row.
“I really wanted to be top five, that was my goal,” Oelkrug said. “It’s definitely super exciting to be up there with my team senior year and I’m really excited to see my team get everything we worked for. I was a little further from the lead pack than I would have liked in the middle [of the race], which meant I had to work a little harder at the end, but I think everything worked out well.”
Also in the Division III girls race, Ottawa Hills sophomore Joanna Kelley finished eighth (18:33.1).
“It was definitely chilly but it was pretty good,” Kelley said. “I got 21st last year, so it’s an improvement from last year.”
Also competing individually in the Division III girls race were Gibsonburg sophomore Emelia Simmons (44th, 19:46.5), Delta freshman Josilyn Welch (51st, 19:52.5), Van Buren senior Ella Webster (53rd, 19:53.8) and Van Buren freshman Lily Grady (72nd, 20:15.4).
In the Division III boys race, Ottawa Hills sophomore Riley Nixon finished 11th (16:09.0) as his team placed eighth (275) behind champion East Canton (93).
Nixon finished 21st last season.
“It was good,” Nixon said. “I liked how it was cold and it was flat like last year, so I got a pretty good time. Just being on the podium this year is really nice. A lot of those guys are seniors, so it just feels great to be up there.”
In the Division II girls race, Eastwood finished 13th (286) and Liberty-Benton was 17th (397) behind champion Minerva (136).
Wauseon senior Grace Rhoades finished 25th (19:06.9) to lead the area.
Freshman Leah Emch (43rd, 19:32.0) and sophomore Avery Bowman (44th, 19:32.3) led Eastwood and freshman Madi Gaerke (80th, 20:11.7) was Liberty-Benton's top runner.
Wauseon also had one of the area’s top runners in the Division II boys race in senior Hunter Wasnich, who was 23rd (16:19.6), while junior teammate Aidan Pena was 41st (16:37.0).
“It was tough competition all the way around,” Wasnich said. “We work together with the girls team. It’s not as good as getting two teams here like last year, but I’ll take getting three people here.”
The area’s top Division II boys finisher was Bryan senior Joshuah Taylor, who was 17th (16:06.4). His sophomore teammate, Zander Fackler, was 44th (16:38.1).
Also competing was Napoleon senior Ryan Otto, who was 65th (16:48.4).
First Published November 6, 2021, 9:57 p.m.