CRESTLINE — Colonel Crawford has an established record in high school track and field, regularly sending individuals and teams to state meets.
Yet the Eagles still felt overshadowed by their bigger neighbor, Galion, a successful track program in its own right.
Colonel Crawford coach Preston Foy hopes that the results of this year’s Crawford County Invitational meet will change that.
The Eagles girls more than doubled Galion, 214-106, and the boys edged the Tigers, 163-158, to sweep the county meet at Crestline High School Friday afternoon.
“They’re hungry. They’re tired of being viewed as little brother to Galion,” Foy said. “So, they had this opportunity upon them to come out here and show they’re tired of that mentality. They’re the best in the county.”
Both Colonel Crawford teams got boosts from meet Most Valuable Players. The girls’ Katie Ruffener outdistanced runner-up Chloe Kaple of Wynford, 40-24, to win the girls’ running MVP.
Carter Valentine won the boys’ field events award, getting 17 points to Crestline’s Ethan Clark’s 11.
Rachel Weyant of Crestline won the girls’ field MVP with 16 points and the Bulldogs’ Calvin Reed won the running MVP.
Wynford finished third for the girls with 85 points, Bucyrus and Buckeye Central tied for fourth with 41 and Crestline had 24 points.
On the boys’ side, Bucyrus was third with 65 points, Crestline had 62, Wynford finished with 52 and Buckeye Central came in with 24.
“It started with the field events to the two-mile (3200-meter run), which was an unbelievable two-mile by Luke Lawson,” Foy said. “It was like a 30-second PR (personal record) there. If he gets beat, we probably don’t win (the boys’ meet). It was that kind of stuff.”
Lawson ran an 11:02.42 to hold off Galion’s Chad Taylor, who came in at 11:12.34. Lawson also won the mile (1600-meter run) with a time of 5:00.06.
Two meet records were broken. Ruffener ran a 14.32 in the girls’ 100-meter hurdles, breaking the previous record set by Wynford’s Amber Rall in 2003. Valentine and Galion’s Caleb Branstetter each jumped 6-06.00 in the boys’ high jump to mutually break the former record of Wynford’s David Wood way back in 1984.
“This is a really important meet, the Crawford County Meet,” Foy said. “All the kids know one another, it’s a rivalry. We haven’t won in a while with Coach (Todd) Roston being over there.
“I think they are starting to believe now,” Foy added. “Winning this county meet means a lot to them. I think this is going to be good momentum going into post-season.”
Team results
Girls
- Colonel Crawford 214
- Galion 106
- Wynford 85
- Bucyrus 41
- Tie Buckeye Central 41
- Crestline 24
Boys
- Colonel Crawford 163
- Galion 158
- Bucyrus 65
- Crestline 62
- Wynford 52
- Buckeye Central 21