Shelby XC bolts by Galion, Madison
Daily Globe Sports Editor
GALION — Shelby cross country coaches Steve Clark and Chris Zuercher both declared Tuesday was a nice day to run.
Their Whippet runners didn’t disappoint either.
Zuercher’s boys squad boasted the first six runners in the finish chute and filled 12 of the first 16 while pitching a shutout during a tri-meet at Amann’s Reservoir. The red and gray finished with 15 points and were followed by Galion (55) and Mansfield Madison (69).
“Today was nice day to race,” said Zuercher. Both SHS squads were to run Saturday at the Mount Gilead Invitational, because
Richland County is currently under Level 3 red status on the Ohio Public Health Advisory System due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no schools in a county under that designation were permitted to compete in Morrow County. “We ran in trainers — no spikes — today to treat it as a workout. I thought we did a nice job today racing.”
The Shelby girls, who are guided by Clark, went 1-2 in their race to upend the Tigers and Rams. The score, times and places were not available at deadline.
“What a beautiful day to race,” exclaimed Clark. “The one-two finishes from Kayla Gonzales and Reyna Hoffman led the charge and the pack of Abby Vogt, Kailyn Schwall, Lily Clark, Aleigha
Thauvette, Channon Cundiff and Ava Long was huge. They are able to feed off of each other’s energy and push each other along.”
Clark likes the direction his team is taking.
“My ladies have been working extremely hard the past few weeks and I knew they each run as if it were the last of the year,” said the girls coach.
Riley Fackler was the first across the line with a time of 17:23 for the Whippets.
The first six for SHS were separated by 44 seconds and included Josh Mohr (2nd, 17:27), Mason Hendrickson (3rd, 17:40), Luke Dininger (4th, 17:48), Marshall Moore (5th, 17:58) and Luke Lesseuer (6th, 18:07).
“I though Luke Dininger raced well today. I thought both freshmen — Marshall Moore and Luke Lesseuer — are stepping up nicely. Both had PR’S. For Marshall to break into the 17s on a Tuesday is impressive,” said Zuercher.
Finding their way into the top 16 for Shelby were Kael Moore (8th, 18:23), Nate Ganzhorn (12th, 19:00), Ian Finnegan (13th, 19:02), Graeme Harvey (14th, 19:09), Carson Perkins (15th, 19:10) and Ryan Dick (16th, 19:39).
Also racing for the Whippets were Indy Mayer (18th, 19:52), Caleb Vogt (20th, 19:58), Sean Finnegan (22nd, 20:23), Brenton Graska (23rd, 20:27), Toby Randall (27th, 20:50), Jared Billheimer (31st, 21:49), Graham Yeager (36th, 30:10) and Damon Frary (37th, 31:01).
Another solid group of support followed SHS to Galion and prompted Clark to say “I know all the parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, and friends of cross country are proud of them too. We thank them for coming out and showing their support. We are blessed.”
Shelby’s cross country teams run Saturday at the Marion Harding Invitational.