Minster girls win state title
OBETZ — The Minster girls cross country team capped off the 2021 season by capturing the Division III state team title on Saturday morning at Fortress Obetz.
It is the 14th state title in the program’s history, with the first coming in 1982.
Others were in 1999, 2000 and 2001, 2004 and 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, then four straight from 2016 to 2019. (They finished second to West Liberty-Salem in 2020.)
Beaumont, from Cleveland Heights, is the next closest with seven titles, the most recent in 2001.
Minster finished with a team score of 66, well ahead of runner-up Liberty Center (108). Fort
Loramie took third place with 124 points.
St. Henry was 10th, Fort Recovery 12th, and Anna was 13th out of the 20 schools with full teams.
Sophomore Maggie Hemmelgarn was third overall, and scored in second place, with a time of 18:23.
Junior Taylor Roth was sixth (18:42), followed by sophomore Chaney Cedarleaf (13th, 19:13); sophomore Morgan Ketner (20th, 19:45); and junior Cameo Cedarleaf (25th, 19:59). Freshman Ava Stammen was 26th (20:01) and sophomore Rachel Niekamp was 37th (20:21).
Other members of the team are senior Emma Meyer, sophomores Riley Billing and Gabi Pelletier, and freshmen
Josie Boate, Lexi Hanson, Adriana Kremer, Mallory Pfeil and Betz Trzaska.
The head coach is Jessie Magoto and the assistant is Greg Zumberger.
For the Lady Redskins, Claire Rethman was scored seventh with a time of 18:50. Other top finishers were Lauren Moore (16th, 19:26); Ava Turner (27th, 20:06); Olivia Borchers (28th, 20:09); and Harley Eilerman (46th, 20:33). Also in action were Colleen Borchers (48th, 20:35) and Ariel Heitkamp (20:59).
Caleigh Richards of Maplewood was the race winner with a time of 18:16.
Competing as individuals were Brittany Arnold of Botkins (18th, 19:00) and Taylor Spencer
of Waynesfield-Goshen (25th, 19:24). ————
In the boys Divison III race, Perry’s Braden Yingst won the race with a time of 15:29. East Canton was the team champion with a score of 93.
Fort Loramie finished in third place (109), while Botkins was sixth (238) and Minster was 11th (289).
Senior Alex Albers led Minster with a time of 15:59, finishing sixth overall and being scored in third place.
Next across was sophomore Jack Grieshop (50th, 17:17), followed by sophomore Ryan Halpin (60th, 17:28); junior Jim Trzaska (74th,
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