BUCYRUS — On Saturday, May 18, the student athletes representing Colonel Crawford and Crestline High Schools headed back to Bucyrus for day two of the Division III Northwest District Championships.
Day one’s action saw five members of the Eagles squad qualify for regionals in their respective individual events while also being joined by the Lady Eagles 4×800-meter relay team of Katie Hopkins, Alison Manko, Hannah Willacker and Ally Hocker. For the Bulldogs, Logan Parrella had punched his ticket with a third place effort in the shot put while Alec Sipes finished as the runner-up in the pole vault to move on to this week’s action.
Also after that first day of action, the Lady Eagles held the top-spot on the leader board with 25 points while the Crawford boys team sat tied for first with their district nemesis, the Crestview Cougars, with each team having tallied 22 points.
When all was said and done on Saturday, the Colonel Crawford girls squad finished with 108 points to earn their second consecutive district title and their sixth title overall in the last eight years, all but 2013 and 2017. Hopewell-Loudon clocked in as the runner-ups with 79 points.
Katie Ruffener would claim two individual event championships to lead the way for the Lady Eagles as she paced the field in the 100-meter hurdles (15.88) and the 300-meter hurdles (47.80). Ruffener was also a member of the regional qualifying 4×100-meter relay team. The Crawford grouping of Corin Feik, Ruffener, Madisyn Cooke and Cassidy Vogt finished as the runner-ups in the event with a time of 52.31 to advance onward to the Lancaster regionals. Ruffener would not stop there however as she also will be in action this week thanks to a runner-up finish in the 200-meter dash (27.43).
Vogt will be competing in four events as well at Fairfield Union High School this week. In addition to being a member of the 4×100-relay team, Vogt finished as the runner-up in the 100-hurdles (16.37) and the long jump (15’10½”) and also claimed fourth in the 300-hurdles (49.84).
A pair of Katies will be joining their teammates in regional action this week as Katie Hanft finished in the runner-up spot in the 1600-meter run (5:37.36) and Katie Hopkins earned third place in the 3200-meter run (12:58.33).
Placing but not advancing for the Lady Eagles were: 4×200-meter relay (Feik, Cooke, Liv and Drew Krassow), 8th; Manko- 1600, 6th; Hocker- 800-meter run, 5th; Julia Feik- shot put, 6th and Lydia Feik- shot put, 8th.
Crestview claimed the boys title, topping the field with 93 points while Crawford finished in second with 91 points. The Eagles were upended by the Cougars following a streak of six consecutive titles (shared title with Crestview in 2017). Crestview had previously finished as the runner-ups to Crawford in five of those six seasons.
The Eagles boys team would see one additional champion on Saturday following Alex Mutchler’s win in the pole vault Thursday. Braxton James ran his way to a championship time in the 800, crossing the finish line in 1:59.97.
Mutchler and James will be busy in other events this week in the Tiffin regional meet as Mutchler finished in the runner-up position in both the 110-meter hurdles (16.66) and the 300-hurdles (41.80). Tristian Cross, Colton Rowland and Gavin Trubee will join James at regionals in the 4×200-relay event following a second place time of 1:34.06 at the district meet. Crawford’s 4×100-relay group of Owin Seevers, Rowland, Mutchler and Cross finished second to advance with a time of 45.31.
Rowland would qualify in the 200 with a third place time of 24.08 and place fifth in the 100-meter dash. Jonah Studer and Jordan Fenner will be on hand in the field events for Crawford after Studer finished second in the discus (131’6”) and Fenner cleared 5-feet, 10-inches, good for third in the high jump.
Crestline’s boys team would finish the two-day district meet with a total of 46 points, good for fifth overall as a team.
Parrella will be competing in both the shot put and discus at the regional meet after snagging fourth in the disc on Saturday (120’11”). Max Anatra will also be moving on with Parrella and Sipes as he finished fourth in both the 110-hurdles (16.97) and the 300-hurdles (42.93).
Also placing for the ‘Dogs in Bucyrus were: 4×200-relay (Anatra, Trevor Phillips, Austin Silverwood, Dakota Wireman), 5th; 4×400-meter relay (Phillips, Anatra, Silverwood, Wireman), 5th; Wireman- 400, 5th and Silverwood- high jump, 8th.
