Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012

Coldwater's girls, St. Henry's boys capture county team titles

Mercer County Cross Country Meet

By Gary R. Rasberry
Photo by Gary R. Rasberry/The Daily Standard

St. Henry's Aaren Hemmelgarn won the boys' individual race during Tuesday's Mercer County cross country meet.

MARIA STEIN - Before Tuesday's Mercer County cross country meet, Coldwater's coach Marty Schoenherr told his top runners to stay together when they ran the course at Marion Community Park.
The Cavaliers' trio of Christina Seas and Sarah and Jill Kanney followed the instruction of their coach and crossed the finish line at the exact same time to earn a three-way tie for the race title, helping Coldwater pull past Celina in the team standings of the high school girls' race.
In the high school boys' race, St. Henry's Aaren Hemmelgarn pulled away from Parkway's Cameron Strunk down the stretch to take the boys' title and help the Redskins capture the team title by 13 points over runner-up Coldwater.
The Lady Cavaliers' trio of the two Kanneys and Seas each finished in a time of 20:56.1, over two minutes slower than Sarah Kanney's blistering mark at the OHSAA Preseason Invite on Saturday at National Trail Raceway.
Coach Schoenherr, noting that Tuesday was the second of three races in eight days for the Cavaliers - with Saturday's Rotary Invitational at the Lake Campus being the third, told his runners to pace themselves.
"Today, we were taking it easy a little bit," said the first-year Cavaliers' coach. "It's still a quality run, but it was just (taking it) a little bit easier, a little slower to keep them back so they're a little fresher for Saturday. Three races in eight days is insane, so I didn't want them pushing too hard today."
Fort Recovery's Elle Sutter finished fourth with Celina's Jenna Coon in fifth. St. Henry's Courtney Kunk, Celina's Katlin Robinson, Parkway's Allison Gaerke, Marion Local's Courtney Albers and St. Henry's Lindsay Schulze rounded out the top 10 that earn All-County honors.
Hemmelgarn got out front and pulled away as he came out of the woods and made the turn for the final straightaway. Hemmelgarn finished the 5,000-meter course in 16:37.1, 33.8 seconds ahead of Strunk, who was coming off a great second-place finish in his heat at the OHSAA Preseason Invite last Saturday.
"It was a real good race to start," said Hemmelgarn. "I was looking forward to getting my season started. Just wanted to go out and put up a good time and start off well."
Celina's Cole Mertz finished third and was followed by St. Henry's Spencer Schulze and Coldwater's duo of Riley Kuess and Jon Wenning to cap the top five. Rounding out the All-County top 10 were St. Henry's Clayton Bruggeman, Coldwater's Dan Seas, St. Henry's Scott Knapke and Parkway's Seth Rollins.
Celina swept the middle school team titles. Celina's Lauren McDonough and Parkway's Caleb Rollins took the girls' and boys' individual race wins.
Most of the area teams will be at the Rotary Invite on Saturday while Marion Local will head to West Milton to compete in the Bob Schul Invitational.
Photo by Gary R. Rasberry/The Daily Standard

Celina's Jenna Coon finished fifth during Tuesday's Mercer County cross country meet in Maria Stein.

Photo by Gary R. Rasberry/The Daily Standard

Coldwater's Riley Kuess finished fourth during Tuesday's Mercer County cross country meet.

Additional online stories on this date
Grant will help restore wetlands
MONTEZUMA - The county landed a much-needed $534,270 state grant to buy property for a wetlands restoration project along the shores of Prairie Creek and Grand Lake. [More]
Auglaize County
ST. MARYS - Auglaize residents soon will have access to 15.84 acres of wooded land just north of St. Marys for hiking and other nature activities thanks to a donation from a local family. [More]
Subscriber and paid stories on this date
Company will try technology on lake
GRAND LAKE - A machine designed to destroy algae will be tested on Grand Lake for three weeks starting today.
The local Lake Restoration Commission
ROCKFORD - Rockford may have its own low-frequency radio station in the near future, playing a mix of hits from the last 40 years and providing local news and information.
With 4.4 percent joblessness in July, Mercer County continued its year-long ranking as the Ohio county with the lowest unemployment.
Auglaize Count
Guidelines change; village plans to resubmit $820,000 grant request
MINSTER - Village council members learned Tuesday that Ohio Department of Transportation dollars will not be coming to extend tree planting and new lights along the eastern section of Fourth Street.
Nine people were arrested Tuesday on charges stemming from a Grand Lake Task Force investigation.
Mercer County Sheriff Jeff Grey said the focus of the ongoing investigation involved heroin and prescription drugs.
By SHELLEY GRIESHOP
and MARGIE WUEBKER
sgrieshop@dailystandard.com
mwuebker@dailystandard.com
Law enforcement officers recently pulled 190 marijuana plants from farm fields in Auglaize County, following a recent helicopter search.
Local Roundup
Compiled by Ryan Hines and Gary R. Rasberry
It was a tough start to the 2012 boys' soccer season on Tuesday for Celina as Findlay handed the Bulldogs an 8-1 defeat at Celina Soccer Stadium.
Former Celina resident Mike Wessel will be featured this Friday on the Bellator Fighting Championship's "Bellator 73" Mixed Martial Arts program held at the Tunica Hotel and Casino in Tunica Resorts, Miss. Wessel now fights out of Jonesboro, Arkansas.
CELINA - Jared Rolfes is smiling from ear-to-ear when talking about the potential for his 2012 Celina Bulldogs' football team.
Rolfes willingly adm
COLDWATER - The Coldwater football team has a wealth of experience for the upcoming 2012 season as 23 seniors, most of whom will either start or see significant playing time, dot the roster for coach Chip Otten.
FORT RECOVERY - If there is a single word that describes the 2012 Fort Recovery football team, versatility would be that word.
Indians' eighth-year
MARIA STEIN - A year after stampeding to their fifth state championship, the Marion Local Flyers will have a lot of work to do, trying to fill plenty of important spots vacated by graduated starters.
MINSTER - In his two seasons at the steering wheel of Minster's football program, head coach Nate Moore has driven the Wildcats to levels they had not attained in nearly two decades.
NEW BREMEN - Jason McGaharan has been impressed with the work that his New Bremen Cardinals have put in during the summer and preseason as he prepares for his first game as the Cardinals' new head football coach.
ROCKFORD - Parkway's second-year football coach Dan Cairns is hoping that his team can hit the ground running with a year of seasoning in the new offensive and defensive schemes that were laid out a season ago.
ST. HENRY - Jeff Starkey is set to embark on his 10th season on the sidelines as head coach of the St. Henry Redskins' football team and is determined to help his squad rebound from dismal 1-9 and 3-7 records the past two years.
ST. MARYS - In Greg Phillips' first season as head coach of the St. Marys football program, the Roughriders increased their win total from one to four.
CELINA - The most dominant volleyball program in the Western Buckeye League continues to be Celina.
The Bulldogs captured their fourth straight WBL
COLDWATER - On paper, Coldwater's volleyball team appears to be young, but the Cavaliers are loaded with experience and looking to improve upon last year's 14-10 record.
FORT RECOVERY - Kylie Huelsman is excited to begin her second season of coaching the Fort Recovery volleyball team, but she realizes a tough road is ahead after losing five seniors off a team that finished 7-17 a year ago.
MARIA STEIN - Even with a young squad last year, Marion Local's volleyball team took the eventual Division IV state champion St. Henry Redskins to five games before falling in the district final.
MINSTER - Cami Lefeld witnessed many ups and downs throughout her first season of guiding the Minster volleyball program.
Lefeld thinks that an exc
NEW BREMEN - Cardinals' head coach Theresa Jenkins has an experienced team coming back that is focused on improving upon last year's 8-16 record.
Just two seniors graduated off last year's team and the Cardinals will have five seniors dotting the roster, along with a host of letterwinners.
ROCKFORD - The Parkway volleyball team lost a lot of firepower because of graduation and Panthers' head coach Jeff Marbaugh is looking for consistent play from this year's team that will try to replicate the 18-6 record of last season.
ST. HENRY - For 13 straight seasons from 1993-2005, the St. Henry Redskins ruled the Midwest Athletic Conference volleyball standings.
In 2007, the Redskins hit a program-worst seventh place in the MAC, but for the next three years they methodically drifted back toward the top.
ST. MARYS - Tricia Rosenbeck has increased the number of wins in each of the past three seasons as head coach of the St. Marys' volleyball program, but doing so again this year may be a tough task.