Elmwood’s cross country teams are both aiming for return trips to Columbus this weekend.
The Royals are one of five boys teams and three girls teams from Wood County running for a trip to state
Saturday at the regional meet at Tiffin’s Hedges-Boyers Park.
Joining Elmwood on the boys side are Bowling Green, Eastwood, Lake and Otsego. Eastwood and Perrysburg
join Elmwood in the girls meet.
The Royal boys are ranked 11th in the Division III state poll, while the girls are ranked 15th.
The boys won the regional championship last season, edging Delta for the title. The girls also advanced
to state from regionals with a third-place finish last season. Both the boys and girls teams finished
eighth at state last season.
“It’s really a great confidence booster coming into (regionals) with district championships,” Elmwood
coach Chris Hailey said. “We’ve got a lot of veterans that have been there … They kind of know what’s
ahead of them, so it’s a big advantage.”
Leading the veterans for Elmwood’s boys is junior Nick Goebel, who finished fifth last season at
regionals. He’s coming off a first-place finish at districts last week when he lowered his own school
record with his first sub-16 minute time of his career. His time was 15:52
“He finally got that sub-16 he’s been chasing for a while and I don’t think he’s done yet,” Hailey said
of Goebel.
For the girls, Darla Heimann finished seventh at districts last week, while Bethany Flage was right
behind in eighth and Ashley Wolfe finished 11th. Miranda Wagner was 16th and Addy Mathias was 20th to
round out a complete effort.
“Our chances are good if we can run our race and just stay healthy,” Hailey said. “It’s always a tough
regional field, but we have good chances.”
Eastwood is also sending both teams to regionals. The boys won the Division II district title while the
girls advanced by finishing fourth.
It is the 12th consecutive regional appearance for the Eastwood boys.
“It’s nothing different for us to go to regionals, that’s for sure. We usually go, so everybody’s been
there before,” said Eastwood coach Richard Morgan. “No one is going to be afraid of it.”
At districts Eastwood had all of its top five runners in the top 17 overall, with Nick Twining leading
the way with his fourth-place finish. Chase Baldwin took seventh at districts.
“We’ve done pretty well the past couple weeks. We just need to go out and run as hard as we can and let
it shake out,” Morgan said. “The boys haven’t been in state in a long time … They’d like to do that.”

Madi Renollet led the Eagle girls at districts, finishing 15th.
Perrysburg’s girls are coming off a district title in Division I, led by Andrea Alt who finished second
individually.
“They have a shot to get to state. We’re just leaving it at that … If we don’t run well, then obviously
having a shot means nothing,” Perrysburg coach Vern Kiehl said. “We just have to go down and do our best
that day and however it falls is how it falls.”
Kaitlyn Llewellyn was seventh at districts. Amanda Poll was 14th, Abby Reymann was 16th, and Megan Olzak
was 17th to round out Perrysburg’s top five times.
For Lake’s boys, senior Zach Powell won the Division II district race and will look to lead the Flyers at
regionals. Powell has won every race he has been in this season with the exception of the Tiffin
Carnival, one of the largest races in Ohio, where he finished fourth overall.
Louis Szilagyi has also been strong all season for the Flyers and finished fifth at districts.
“We anticipate that Zach is going to be right there in the top four or five runners,” Lake coach Ken
Mysinger said. “He’s having a year that no one can really remember any other Lake athlete ever having as
far as cross country.
“Louis Szilagyi is looking to be right in the mix as well as far as advancing on.”
As a team, Lake finished second at districts.
Rounding out the teams from the county is BG, which finished fourth at districts in Division I; and
Otsego’s boys, who finished third in Division II.
Individuals from county schools who will be running at regionals are: Boys — Bryant Byrd (Perrysburg);
and Kyle Babcock (Lakota); Girls — Cortney Haubert (BG); Abbey Geraghty (Rossford); Julia Windom
(Lakota); Leah Waggoner (Otsego) and Kylee Bernthisel (Otsego).
BG resident Elizabeth Lemon had the second-best time for Notre Dame Academy, finishing fifth overall in
the Division I district race. Notre Dame advanced as a team, taking second.
The time schedule for Saturday’s regional races is as follows: Division III girls, 11:05 a.m.; Division
II girls, 11:50 a.m.; Division I girls, 12:35 p.m.; Division III boys, 1:20 p.m.; Division II boys, 2:05
p.m.; Division I boys, 2:50 p.m.