Crescent-News.com - DHS ready to make a run at league titles

By KEVIN EIS

cnsports@crescent-news.com

With the regular-season cross country meets all wrapped up, the Defiance High School boys and girls cross country teams are preparing for Saturday and a trip to Celina to see how they fare against the rest of the Western Buckeye League at the league championship meet.

After securing a third-consecutive WBL crown a year ago at Lima, the DHS girls are hoping to make it four in a row after seeing a number of runners improve over the course of the season.

However, standing in the way of the Lady Bulldogs is a tough Van Wert pack led by Lauren Taylor (third in 2007) and Taylor Greve (11th in 2007), which placed second as a team a year ago.

"We have a chance," said DHS girls' coach Scott Saner of his squad's chances of another league title. "Of the 10 teams showing up there's only two that I really think have a legitimate chance to win it."

After losing top runners Lauren Fett and Kristen Barth to graduation, Defiance will look to a pack of talented young ladies to step up. Having strong showings this season to lead the DHS runners have been juniors Megan Vogelsong and Anna Meyer, along with senior Taylor Schultz.

Vogelsong recorded an eighth-place finish last year while Schultz was right behind in ninth. Meyer, who is in her first season of cross country, also plays volleyball for the Lady Bulldogs.

While Saner expects stiff team competition between his pack and Van Wert, he expects Vogelsong to possibly challenge for the individual title against Van Wert's Taylor and Andrea Glenn of Lima Shawnee, who placed fourth in 2007.

"Those three have been really steady all season long," lauded Saner of Vogelsong, Schultz and Meyer. "But I think the league title is potentially going to come down to the four, five and six girls on both sides. That's the group I've seen a whole lot of improvement out of in the last three or four weeks. They've really stepped up their game and all three of them were not running varsity last year."

The newcomers Saner is referring to are sophomores Alex Ramirez, Sadie Daeger and senior Kelsey Dale, who round out a DHS team that Saner feels is peaking at just the right time.

"We're really gaining some confidence and physically we're really in good shape," he noted. "I just think they're hitting their stride at just the right time. We'll find out on Saturday if that's true or not. With as young and inexperienced as we are we've had a lot of improvement toward the end of the season for sure."

Meanwhile, behind some returning experience, the DHS boys hope to improve on last year's second-place team finish.

After placing second a year ago to Celina after going to a sixth-man tiebreaker, Defiance longtime boys' mentor Obie Mouser once again looks for a repeat of the stringent competition his squad will face against a strong Celina team led by Andrew Goodwin (fourth in 2007) and Mitch Williams (11th in 2007).

"Last year ended in a tie-breaker and this year both of us at this stage are probably dead even," commented Mouser. "Each team will have a couple of kids who are pretty good. Team-wise so far, it's been Celina and us."

Leading the DHS pack are the tandem of senior Zach Wiles and junior Trevin Flickinger. Wiles placed second a year ago behind Lima Shawnee graduate Chase Violet while Flickinger garnered a third-place finish.

"We really just have to be able to sustain our run," admitted the DHS coach. "Last year we faded in the last half mile, and Celina is very, very good at staying really steady through the race. They usually don't fade."

Ensuring that the Bulldogs remain strong throughout while rounding out the top five will be seniors Mario Ramirez (12th in 2007) and Sebastian Brown, along with junior newcomer Ben Hackworth.

Van Wert, which placed fourth in the team standings last season, returns Kenton Holliday (seventh in 2007) and Jacob Bagley (ninth in 2007) to the mix.

Mouser feels confident in his team's chances heading into the league meet after placing sixth at the Worthington Invitational last Saturday against a number of Division-I schools.

"In our last meet we had 13 out of 15 personal bests," he stated. "We ran a huge meet last Saturday and faced a number of D-I schools and we ran right in there. We were really, really good so it looks like we're running well."

The boys race begins Saturday at 10 a.m. while the girls meet gets underway at 10:45 a.m.