GRAND RAPIDS — Perrysburg swept the team championships Saturday morning during the 27th annual Wood
County Invitational cross country meet at Mary Jane Thurston Park. [CLICK
HERE FOR PHOTO GALLERY]
The individual winners were Perrysburg’s Kaitlyn Llewellyn in the girls race and Lake’s Zack Powell in
the boys race.
The Perrysburg girls won easily with five of the top 11 finishers and 30 total points. Bowling Green was
second in the seven-team meet with 54 points, while Eastwood was third with 102.
Llewellyn led Perrysburg as the junior won the 5K race in 20:26, while classmate Andrea Alt was third in
21:09.
Completing
the Yellow Jackets’ top five were: sophomore Abby Reymann, seventh, 22:15; junior Megan Olzak, eighth,
22:17; and freshman Amanda Poll, 11th, 23:01.
“We ran well,” Perrysburg coach Vern Kiehl said. “Kaitlyn did a good job out front and the rest of the
girls were right behind her.”
The Yellow Jackets return five of their top seven runners from last season when they finished 5-2 in
Northern Lakes League dual meets and second in the league meet.
“They’ve worked hard in practice and they’ve done everything we’ve asked of them,” Kiehl said. “We’re off
to a good start.”
Llewellyn and BG freshman Cortney Haubert battled for the lead during most of the race, but Llewellyn
took the lead for good on the final hill and won by 7.81 seconds.
“She was with me pretty much until the end,” said Llewellyn, who won the Fremont Invitational a week ago
to help the Yellow Jackets finish second as a team. “She did a good job, but I knew I had still
something left for the finish. It’s good to be pushed.”
The race is a good early-season test as the runners face four hills and run through water three times. As
a result, the course is slow and runners rarely run their fastest times.
The season is only a week old and the league meets are still six weeks away, followed by district
competition.
“It’s a fun run. I like this course,” Llewellyn said. “It wasn’t one of my best times, but it still felt
pretty good.”
Perrysburg edged BG by one point for the boys title as two of the Yellow Jackets passed BG runners just
before the finish line.
The Yellow Jackets won the six-team meet with 43 points, while BG was second with 44 and Lake was third
with 88.
The key finishers for Perrysburg were senior Alex Stringham, who was fifth in 18:08 to beat BG’s
sixth-place runner by 21 one-hundreths of a second; and senior Wyatt Hoch, who was eighth in 18:16 to
beating BG’s ninth-place runner by 1.79 seconds.
“A couple of guys sprinting in and picking off BG people at the end was big because, when you win by one
point, you need all that,” Kiehl said. “We ran well.”
Perrysburg’s top finisher was freshman Bryant Byrd, who was third in 18:02.
The Yellow Jackets graduated their top two runners from last season, but still have four of their top
seven back.
“It’s tough to replace your top two, but the team is coming along,” said Kiehl, whose team was second in
the NLL last season. “Ourselves and BG are going to battle like this wherever we meet because it’s two
good teams.”
BG had four of the top 10 finishers, led by junior Zack Southward, who was sixth in 18:08.
“We ran well and Perrysburg ran well, and we’re obviously shadows of each other,” BG coach Brian Tucker
said. “It was two good teams battling and they happened to win by one.”
BG is hoping to challenge for the NLL title after finishing fourth last season.
“We’ve come a long ways,” Tucker said. “We’ve got some nice young people running. We’re encouraged about
the season and we think we can do some good things. We think we have the makings of a good team. We’re
pleased so far.”
Powell, a senior, and classmate Louis Szilagyi dominated the race after the first mile. Powell won in
17:26, beating Szilagyi by 16.57 seconds.
“We wanted to stay near the front for the first mile and then we really wanted to push the second mile,”
Powell said. “That’s what we did and we got the lead.”
WOOD COUNTY INVITATIONAL
CROSS COUNTRY MEET
At Mary Jane Thurston Park
BOYS
PERRYSBURG 43
3) Byrd, 18:02; 5) Stringham, 18:08; 8) Hoch, 18:16; 13) Adams, 18:42; 14) Moyer, 18:43; 20) Davisson,
18:58; 25) Edinger, 19:23.
BGHS 44
6) Southward, 18:08; 7) K. Budge, 18:26; 9) Seymour, 18:18; 10) Ellinger, 18:29; 12) Saneholtz, 18:34;
19) Kobylski, 18:52; 23) Contreras, 19:05.
LAKE 88
1) Powell, 17:26; 2) Szilagyi, 17:42; 22) Scanlan, 19:00; 30) Breese, 20:10; 35) Stanley, 20:22; 43)
Northcut, 23:28; 45) Walsh, 25:11.
EASTWOOD 93
15) Baldwin, 18:44; 16) Bratton, 18:49; 17) Twining, 18:49; 18) Wahl, 18:52; 27) Herrick, 19:37; 34)
Henry, 20:18; 36) Shumay, 20:26.
OTSEGO 117
11) Wazelle, 18:29; 21) Cheney, 18:59; 24) VanHorn, 19:09; 31) Hoffman, 20:11; 32) Fowler, 20:12; 33)
Stephens, 20:15; 38) Johnson, 21:09.
LAKOTA 132
4) Babcock, 18:06; 26) Benfer, 19:30; 29) Garber, 20:03; 37) Baker, 20:29; 41) Aldrich, 22:33; 42) Foos,
22:39.
ROSSFORD NO TEAM SCORE
28) Groom, 19:59; 39) Romero, 21:49; 40) Gunn, 22:17; 44) Brown, 25:03.
GIRLS
PERRYSBURG 30
1) Llewellyn, 20:26; 3) Alt, 21:09; 7) Reymann, 22:15; 8) Olzak, 22:17; 11) Poll, 23:01; 17)
Weisenberger, 23:43; 18) Jones, 23:44.
BGHS 54
2) Haubert, 20:34; 9) Baker, 22:25; 10) Stockwell, 22:59; 14) Lutz, 23:25; 19) A. Dubler, 23:48; 26)
Foley, 24:48; 29) K. Dubler, 25:08.
EASTWOOD 102
13) Renollet, 23:08; 20) Russell, 24:25; 22) Decker, 24:36; 23) M. Caris, 24:37; 24) L. Caris, 24:46; 30)
Long, 25:31; 37) Jackson, 26:47.
OTSEGO 106
5) Wagoner, 22:06; 6) Bernthisel, 22:11; 28) Levin, 25:05; 33) Hagemeyer, 26:13; 34) Becker, 26:21; 38)
Businger, 26:59; 46) Moser, 29:04.
LAKE 107
12) Johnson, 23:07; 16) Soncrant, 23:38; 21) Roelle, 24:27; 27) Strickler, 24:54; 31) Greenlese, 25:33;
36) Coutcher, 26:37; 39) Santana, 27:06.
LAKOTA 135
4) Windom, 21:35; 15) Gabel, 23:30; 35) Randolph, 26:34; 40) Steiner, 27:14; 21) Caudill, 27:19; 42)
Babcock, 27:23; 45) Guay, 28:38.
ROSSFORD 191
25) Geraghty, 24:48; 32) Mullins, 25:59; 43) Schaller, 27:23; 44) Kralik, 27:56; 47) Boney, 29:23.