Fenzl 8th, Essinger 19th

By Cort Reynolds

The Bluffton cross country teams competed at the wet Div. III, District 1 meet on Saturday, October 21, in Columbus Grove.

The Bluffton boys finished seventh out of 11 teams in the district meet at Columbus Grove. The girls Bluffton finished eighth out of 10 teams.

Boys competition
Host Grove won the boys team crown with 24 points. New Bremen was second with 58 points, followed by Marion Local (74).

Bluffton scored 207 points to beat out Cory-Rawson, Wayne Trace, Spencerville and Allen East.

Junior Levi Fenzl finished eighth in 17:12.52 to record the top Pirate showing. He was the top individual finisher not on one of the top three teams, and thus qualified for the regional meet.

The region 10 meet will be Saturday, October 28 at Tiffin’s Hedges-Boyer Park.

The average Bluffton time was 20:08. 

Senior Luke Ellerbrock of Columbus Grove won the 77-man race in 15:45.96.  

The first-place Grove runners averaged a time of 16:37.

Bluffton boys finishers:

Place Runner Class - Time

8 Levi Fenzl 11 - 17:12.52

46 Liam Jordan 12 - 19:47.01 

47 Owen Shoemaker 9 - 20:03.26

58 Adam Fritsch 9 - 21:25.89

67 Elijah Diffin 11 - 22:14.54

Girls competition
Pirate junior June Essinger finished 19th in the 77-runner girls field to post the top Pirate showing with a time of 21:17.38.

The average time of the seven Pirate runners was 24 minutes even.

Minster easily captured the girls district title with just 19 points, well ahead of second-place Fort Recovery (78) and Parkway (83). The average Minster time was 19:26.

Bluffton finished eighth out of 10 teams with 206 points, ahead of Pandora-Gilboa (236) and Swanton (246).

Senior Chaney Cedarleaf of Minster won the girls district individual title in a time of 19:16.63. Dominating Minster swept the top three spots, and boasted five of the first seven finishers.

Bluffton girls finishers:

Place Runner Class - Time

19 June Essinger 11 - 21:17.38

36 Ella Armstrong 12 - 22:15.35

46 Amairi Painter 12 - 24:00.86

55 Kaelin Weissling 12 - 25:41.56

64 Elizabeth Honse 10 - 26:44.86

70 Alayna Mueller 10 - 28:18.20

73 Faith Combs 11 - 30:22.49