Pirate boys place 3rd; Essinger is 2nd in girls race

By Cort Reynolds

Bluffton High School senior Landon Armstrong won the 59-runner male race to lead the Pirate boys cross country team to third at the six-team Northwest Conference title meet Saturday morning at Columbus Grove on October 15.

• Armstrong crossed the finish line in a time of 15:45 to easily beat second-place finisher Trent Koch of Grove by 39 seconds.
• Pirate senior Sam Derstine ended up a strong seventh in 16:51. 
• Senior teammate Erik Nygaard came home 10th at 17:18.

The average Bluffton boy finished the 3.1-mile course in 17:22.6.

Bluffton scored 65 points, with a 65-75 point gap between the Pirates and the last three teams. Lincolnview narrowly beat host Columbus Grove 38-41 to win the boys team championship. Spencerville was fourth with 130 points.

The Bluffton girls squad finished third among four teams at the NWC championship meet Saturday in Grove.

• Pirate sophomore June Essinger finished a very strong second out of 47 runners to pace Bluffton.

Lincolnview won the girls team crown with 31 points, followed by Grove in second with 39.

Bluffton scored 69 points, with an average runner time of 23:19. 

Bluffton boys results:

Place Runner Year Time Points

1 Armstrong, Landon 12 Bluffton 15:45 1

7 Derstine, Sam 12 Bluffton 16:51 7

10 Nygaard, Erik 12 Bluffton 17:18 10

25 Andreas, Theo 11 Bluffton 18:28 23

26 Sehlhorst, Landon 9 Bluffton 18:31 24

28 Rehm, Jonah 12 Bluffton 18:38 25

36 Yoder, John 11 Bluffton 19:36 28

43 Hoffman, Ethan 9 Bluffton 20:03

45 Derstine, Calvin 9 Bluffton 20:09

Bluffton girls results:

Place Runner Year Time Points

2 Essinger, June 10 Bluffton 20:26 2 

14 Conley, Grace 9 Bluffton 23:07 14

15 Painter, Amairi 11 Bluffton 23:15 15

18 Honse, Elizabeth 9 Bluffton 23:40 17

33 Tarplee, Sadie 10 Bluffton 26:08 21

36 Weissling, Kaelin 11 Bluffton 26:29 22

39 Combs, Faith 10 Bluffton 27:45 24

NWC boys team standings:

1 Lincolnview 38 points

2 Columbus Grove 41  

3 Bluffton 65  Total Time: 1:26:53.00  Average: 17:22.60

4 Spencerville 130

5 Crestview 131  

6 Leipsic 140 

NWC girls team standings:

1 Lincolnview 31 points

2 Columbus Grove 39  

3 Bluffton 69  Total Time: 1:56:36  Average: 23:19

4 Crestview 101