By Cort Reynolds

Pirate senior Landon Armstrong won the 144-runner boys race to lead the Bluffton High School boys cross country team to a strong fourth-place finish at the 25-team Kalida Invitational meet Saturday morning, October 1.

Armstrong crossed the finish line in a time of 15:56 to defeat 143 runners.

Senior teammate Erik Nygaard came in third at 16:03.4. Pirate senior Sam Derstine finished a very good 10th. 

The drop-off between the top three Pirate runners and the next four kept Bluffton from finishing higher as a team.

Columbus Grove won with 95 points to narrowly beat Lincolnview (98) by three points. Ottawa-Glandorf was third (101), with the Pirates in fourth at 120.

The Bluffton girls finished 13th out of 27 teams represented at the Kalida Invitational Saturday.

Lady Pirate sophomore June Essinger finished 19th out of 189 runners to lead Bluffton.

O-G won the girls team crown with 68 points, followed by Liberty Center (80) and Patrick Henry (82).

Bluffton scored 345 points to finish ahead of Waynesfield, Crestview, Ottoville, Elida and Otsego. 

Nine other schools had runners compete but failed to have the requisite five runners finish to field a team score.

Bluffton runs in the 10-team Allen County Invitational Tuesday, October 4. They then compete with 22 squads at Kenton Thursday, October 6.

Bluffton boys results:

Place - Runner - Time

1 Landon Armstrong - 15:56.0

3 Erik Nygaard - 16:03.4

10 - Sam Derstine - 16:47.6

48 - Liam Jordan - 18:20.7

60 - John Yoder - 18:48.4  

62 - Landon Sehlhorst - 18:49.3

67 - Jonah Rehm - 18:56.0

Bluffton girls results:

Place - Runner - Time 

19 - June Essinger -  20:24.1

81 -  Grace Conley - 23:08.2

83  - Amairi Painter - 23:09.3 

104 - Elizabeth Honse - 23:56.1

120 -  Kaelin Weissling - 24:38.2 

156 - Sadie Tarplee - 27:00.0    

167 - Faith Combs - 27:55.1 

Kalida Invite boys team standings:

1 Columbus Grove 95 points

2 Lincolnview 98   

3 Ottawa-Glandorf 101                   

4 Bluffton  120   Top  5 Times total: 1:25:56.0

5 Otsego 126                  

6 Bath 148   

7 Archbold  154   

8 Van Buren 187

9 Liberty Center 198

10 Bryan  291                       

11 St. Marys 295               

12 Kalida 300              

13 Crestview 367                 

14 Liberty-Benton 383                 

15 Waynesfield-Goshen 444                 

16 St. John's 451                 

17 Napoleon 452                 

18 Elida 521               

Incomplete teams: Leipsic, LCC, Lima Senior, McComb,  Pandora-Gilboa, Patrick Henry.