Staff report
news@wbcowqel.com
In a program steeped in tradition that includes numerous All-Ohioans, the Colonel Crawford cross country teams – both boys and girls – will compete Saturday in the Division III regional meet at Boardman High School. Although Coach Jody Grove has sent boys and girls teams to the regional meet before, never in the same year.
The Colonel Crawford boys returned several letter winners and were expected to have an outstanding season and that they have. The Eagles claimed team wins at their own Early Bird Invitational, the Bucyrus Elks Invite, the Galion Cross Country Festival, Bill Brown Invite, Buckeye Central Invite, Crestline Eagles Invite and the inaugural Northern 10 Conference Championships. In fact the only meet the Eagles have not taken home first-place hardware from is the ultracompetitive Tiffin Carnival where they were fifth.
Last weekend they won the Division III district championship at Galion behind Clay Martin’s school record-setting time of 16:14. The previous record of 16:15 was set by Carson Britton in 2009.
Martin will be joined at the starting line Saturday by teammates Brad Bauer, Jon Hoffman, Chad Johnson, Brandon Long, Clay Long and Nic Studer. Alternates Grant Pfiefer and Wade Hopkins will be at the ready. The Eagles were ranked fifth in the final Associated Press poll.
The Colonel Crawford girls were the surprise story. For the first time in several years they had enough runners to compete as a team. Steadily throughout the year the Lady Eagles have improved individually and collectively. Led by relative newcomer Jordan Studer, Colonel Crawford girls finished third at the Division III district meet.
Studer will be joined by Courtney Britt, Amanda Crase, Kylie Keller, Emily Kemper, Anna Reffey, and Maegan Chandler. Both teams are coached by Grove and assistant Pat Logsdon.
Also running as an individual qualifier at Boardman will be Wynford senior Ellie Richmond. The boys race at Boardman will begin at 11 a.m. while the gun for the girls race is scheduled to go off at 1:30 p.m. In Division II at Tiffin, Hobie Cotsmire of Bucyrus will compete as an individual qualifier there.