Story by Cort Reynolds
Photos by Jamie Nygaard
COLUMBUS GROVE - The Bluffton cross country team finished fourth in the annual Northwest Conference championship meet Saturday at Columbus Grove behind a top three showing.

Host CG won the boys team title with 29 points to easily out-distance second-place Lincolnview (58). Crestview nosed out Bluffton for third-place, 91-93.

Bluffton sophomore Erik Nygaard finished a strong third in a time of 16:49 to lead the 11 Pirate boys in the 85-runner field.

The other Pirate runners, with place and time, follow below. The top five runners scored.
 15th Elijah Conley 17:57.5
 20th Sam Derstine 18:09
 32nd Jonah Rehm 18:51
 37th Trey Boblitt  19:14

 42nd Wyatt Lovell  19:36
 56th Brandon Good  20:16
 57th Isaiah Conley 20:28
 58th Liam Jordan 20:32
 64th Carter Dyar 21:25
 65th Carter Dailey 21:28

Junior Caleb Stechschulte of Columbus Grove won the boys individual race in a time of 16:33. Sophomore Trent Koch of Grove finished second, nine seconds behind his winning teammate in 16:42.

Boys NWC team results
1 Columbus Grove 29 points
 Average time: 17:07.80

2 Lincolnview 58  
 Average time: 17:43.20

3 Crestview 91  
 Average time: 18:07.80

4 Bluffton 93  
 Average time: 18:12.10
 
5 Paulding 141  
 Average: 19:27.70
 
6 Allen East 152  
 Average: 21:26.20
 
7 Ada 183  
 Average: 21:21.20

Senior Melissa Langdon of Lincolnview won the girls individual race in a time of 19:33. Junior Lillee Stewart of Spencerville ended up second at 20:01.

Pirate Junior Caitlin Dailey finished 20th in the 39-runner girls race in 23:44. 

Freshman Amairi Painter was 21st in 23:50. Freshman Kaelin Weissling ended up 29th in 26:09.

Only three schools had enough female runners to record a team score at the league meet. Crestview nipped second-place Grove 36-39 to win the girls team crown. Lincolnview finished third with 56 points.

Girls NWC Team Results
1 Crestview 36 points
 Average: 21:59.20
 
2 Columbus Grove 39  
 Average: 22:07.60
 
3 Lincolnview 56  
 Average: 22:57.80

The Pirates run next in the district meet Saturday, October 24 at Columbus Grove.