R-2 harriers open seasons at three meets

By Will Johnson, Sports Editor
Posted 9/9/21

NEW HAVEN — Over the span of five days last week, Owensville High School and Middle School cross country teams have started their seasons with meets as close as New Haven and as far away as …

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R-2 harriers open seasons at three meets

Posted

NEW HAVEN — Over the span of five days last week, Owensville High School and Middle School cross country teams have started their seasons with meets as close as New Haven and as far away as Memphis, Tenn.

Over the weekend, OMS harriers coached by Tyler Ahring and Megan Young made the short trek to New Haven City Park to compete in the annual New Haven Cross Country Invitational.

Raining throughout the biggest portion of the meet Saturday morning, that didn’t seem to phase the OMS Dutchgirls.

Seeing their first five runners place in the top 25, Owensville (54) was able to hold off Hermann (56) to bring back the team championship plaque in the middle school girl’s division.

“I could not be any more proud of our group of girls,” Ahring said. “This was their first race for some of these girls and they ran pretty well in spite of the adverse weather conditions.”

Hannah Gehlert led the OMS Dutchgirls with a sixth-place time of 15:30.07 followed closely by teammate Lainey Branson with a seventh-place time of 15:35.45.

Taking 21st through 23rd for Owensville were Aubree Carey (17:18.69), Jenna Breedlove (17:20.20) and Cameron Ryerson (17:52.50).

Lorelai McDaniel (35th, 19:38.08) rounded out the OMS Dutchgirl contingency from New Haven.

For the OMS Dutchmen, they placed fourth out of five teams with 71 points led by Kylen Menz’s 13th-place time of 14:14.99 putting him 15 seconds shy of the top 10 and a medal.

Zack Holtmeyer posted a top-20 finish with a 17th-place time of 14:47.88.

Braden Perkins just missed the top 20 with a 21st-place time of 15:29.37.

Bryce Kramme sneaked into the top 25 with a 23rd-place time of 15:42.98.

Drake Dietrich rounded out Owensville top-five scoring runners with a 28th-place time of 15:51.25.

Coleton Connor (32nd), Westin Kramme (36th), Brendan Kramme (37th), Henry Wood (48th) and Ethan Blankenship (53rd) also ran for OMS’ Dutchmen at New Haven.

“While not the idealist of weather conditions, our boys gave it their all even with it being their first race for several of them,” Ahring said.

Nearly six hours away, Matt Candrl’s OHS Dutchmen and Dutchgirls were competing in Memphis, Tenn., at the City Auto Memphis Twilight Cross Country Classic that Saturday night.

A pair of freshmen showed the way for Owensville in their races.

Freshman Derek Carey recorded the highest finish of the meet for an OHS harrier with a 56th-place time of 20:42.59 in the JV boys race.

JV Dutchmen competing along with Carey were Tristan Davis (92nd), Xavier Bayless (115th), Sam Hoffman (177th), Jayden Barnett (185th), Trenton Million (200th), Andrew Blankenship (201st), Sam Nicks (207th), Brandon Graham (228th), Kyle Bollman (234th) and Jim Jenkins (243rd).

OHS’ JV Dutchmen also placed 18th out of 25 teams.

Fellow freshman Ilene Limberg also led the varsity Dutchgirls with a 74th-place time of 21:36.69.

Varsity Dutchgirls racing with Limberg included Kyah Weirich (178th), Abbie Gibson (213th), Lauren Kandlbinder (223rd), Kiera Finn (245th), Hayden Loeb (249th) and Peyton Weinland (259th).

“I’m proud of the way our girls came out and competed hard at a meet of this caliber,” Candrl said.

Candrl’s varsity Dutchgirls placed 29th out of 40 teams.

Placing 41st out of 47 teams, Candrl’s varsity Dutchmen were led by Jacob Breedlove placing 196th in a time of 19:24.15.

Varsity Dutchmen also racing in Memphis were Harm Rademacher (206th), Noah Holtmeyer (232nd), Gabe Soest (256th), Lucas Morgan (260th), Trevor Shockley (268th), Freddy Zheng (283rd) and Felix Guerrero (300th).

JV Dutchgirls placing 19th as a team were paced by Katelyn Holtzer’s 155th-place time of 31:17.92.

Joining Holtzer in Memphis were JV Dutchgirl harriers Cassidy Gooch (169th), Stephanie Cain (178th), Kaeori Butler (179th) and Kiana Wehmeyer (194th).