ALO, Loftus repeat as regional champions

Brock Loftus and the Amboy-LaMoille-Ohio Clippers took aim on the St. Bede regional cross country championship and hit it dead center.

The Clippers claimed three out of the top four finishes, including Loftus’ first-place showing, to repeat as regional champions, defeating Sandwich, which dropped down to 1A from 2A this year, 34-44.

They will advance to next week’s Oregon Sectional along with the Bureau Valley boys (fourth), ALO girls (fourth) and Princeton girls (sixth) teams. No local individuals advanced.

“The boys have worked hard all year and this is a well deserved win. The boys were excited to win, but we know we have work to do to keep moving forward toward the ultimate goal,” ALO coach Michael Robinson said. “We are back at it again Monday for practice and running at sectionals for the fourth year in a row. We are building some traditions that we would like to keep going for a long time to come.”

Loftus even surprised himself with a winning time of 15:07.5 on the shortened 2.86-mile course around the St. Bede campus.

“The main goal today was really just for the team,” Loftus said. “Time wise, I was really happy. I really wasn’t expecting that, but I’m happy with it. When I looked up, it said, ‘14:50.’ I didn’t think it was that quick.”

ALO’s Kyler McNinch followed Loftus in second place at 15:44, with teammates Ian Eller fourth (15:52), Charlie Dickinson 11th (16:37) and Wyatt Lundquist 16th (17:04) as the Clippers made off with the regional title.

Junior Elijah House led Bureau Valley’s charge with a fifth-place time of 15:59. Also for BV, Ben Roth was 20th (17:17), Payton Walowski 40th (18:50), Evan Entas 55th (19:34) and Rhiley Pinter 57th (19:55.2) as the Storm advance to sectionals for the first time in four years.

“I was happy about my place, but always lookin’ to do better. It feels great to go to sectionals with the team after the dry streaks that BV has had,” House said.

Princeton’s Christian Yepsen placed 28th (17:43), just missing the cutoff by one position. He improved last year’s regional finish by 33 spots. Also running for the ninth-place Tigers (201), Mack Williams was 32nd (17:58), Gabriel Glass was 56th (19:48), Evan May 60th (20:15), Jake May 62nd (20:24) and Trent Schafer 68th (21:01).

Henry Orteza was the top finisher for eighth-place St. Bede (182), placing 31st in 17:49. Also for the Bruins, Miguel Jones was 37th (18:30), Josh Grob 47th (19:13), Greyson Marcincic 48th (19:14) and Daniel Dugosh 50th (19:17).

Individual qualifiers were of Alex Welch (17th) of Stark County, Jimmy Lawsha (19th) of Marquette, Aiden Earley (21st) of Annawan-Wethersfield, Logan Pasakarnis (24th) of Newark and Jaren Gerad (26th) of ROWVA.

Bohms leads area girls

Princeton junior Lexi Bohms was the top area girls finisher, placing seventh in 19:34. PHS placed sixth as a team with contributions from Kiana Brokaw 23rd (21:25), Hannah Muehlschlegel (26th, 21:59), Claire Grey (53rd, 25:46), Hope Crouch (57th, 26:47) and Ella Grey (66th, 30:41).

“Our top three girls ran real well with Lexi and Kiana having significant season’s bests and all three having their best Regional finishes,” PHS coach Pat Hodge said. “Hannah seemed to struggle a little bit in the first part of the race, but ran very strong in the second part of the race.”

The A-L-O girls punched its ticket by placing third with 133 points, led by 10th place finisher Lauren Althaus (19:53). Also for ALO, Elly Jones was 18th (20:53), Bailey Ellis 37th (23:04), Addison Pertel 42nd (23:09) and Natalie Pratt 47th (24:12).

Bureau Valley’s Amalie Graversgaard, a foreign exchange student from Denmark, just missed qualifying by one spot, placing 20th in 21:08. Also for the Storm, Jillian Hulsing was 33rd (22:51), Darla Kepner 49th (24:14), Allison Larkin 59th (27:26) and Kaleen Carlson 64th, (30:10).

Macy Zeglis (29th, 22:35) was the top finisher for ninth-place St. Bede, joined by Jaelyn Weber (30th, 22:39), Aleda Hoogland (34th, 22:53), Madelyn Torrance (40th, 23:07) and Abbie George (51st, 25:28).

Evelyn O’Connor of Seneca was the race winner with a time of 18:19. Teammate Ashley Alsvig was third (19:06) as the Irish beat out Sandwich 38-79 for the top team prize.

Individual qualifiers were Kennady Anderson (2nd) and Danielle Johnson (9th) of Annawan-Wethersfield, Maggie Jewett (4th) of Marquette, Natalee Martin (6th) of Kewanee and Gwyneth O’Connell of Newark.