Otsego’s boys and Eastwood’s girls cross country teams completed their respective dominance of the
Northern Buckeye Conference Saturday morning.
The Knights, with a perfect team score of 15, captured its third-consecutive NBC title, and Eastwood’s
girls, by a margin of 27 points, won its fourth straight NBC title at H.P. Eells Park in Bettsville.
Otsego, led by senior Brandon Avers, took the top five spots in the meet. Avers finished as the
individual champion of the boys race for the third-straight year, in a time of 15:57, 57 seconds ahead
of second-place finisher and teammate Tyler Harroun, who ran a 16:54.
"Our boys, they really pack together well. … Our two through four runners were within four seconds
of one another," said Otsego coach Ryan Hafner. "All four of them, it was their first time
breaking 17 minutes in a race. So for all of them to do that on the same day at the NBC championship is
just perfect timing."
Derek Morgan finished in third in 16:57, Fred Balmoria was fourth in 16:58.25, and Caleb Baus was fifth
in 16:58.78.
Elmwood’s boys finished second with 67 points, while Eastwood was fourth at 106. Lake was fifth with 142
points, and Rossford was sixth with 146.
Eastwood’s Sam Church was the first non-Otsego runner to cross the finish line, finishing sixth overall
in 16:59.
For Eastwood’s girls, sophomore Hannah Sponaugle was the individual winner in 19:17. Teammate Meagan
Kaminski was second in 19:30. It was Sponaugle’s second straight individual championship.
The Eagles finished with 32 points, while Elmwood was second with 59. Otsego (127), Lake (132) and
Rossford (213), finished fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively.
"We talked about running the course (for the first time) on Thursday when we went out to
practice," Eastwood coach Stephanie Schneider-Sims said. "We really spent time on the last
mile. They knew exactly where 1,200 to go was, 800 to go, 400 to go. We talked about where to make
moves, so they knew that."
Ashley Madaras was sixth in 20:37, freshman Sofia Weis was ninth in 21:00, and Larissa Barman was 14th in
21:25 for the Eagles.
"The seniors’ attitude all week just kind of rubbed off on the underclassman also,"
Schneider-Sims said. "The other girls just really picked up on what they (seniors) wanted to do and
their attitude."
Full results of the meet can be found at www.baumspage.com