PEMBERVILLE — Eastwood’s Leah Emch sprinted to a second-place finish on Saturday to highlight a night of celebration at the second annual Darin Goodman Night Invitational at Eastwood High School.

“It really means a lot that we host this for Darin,” Emch said. “It’s just a really good meet and to know it’s for a good cause and that we’re doing it for him to honor his name just says a lot about our community. We have a lot of volunteer support, which is amazing.”

As a team, Eastwood’s girls team finished fifth overall, which was two spots ahead of Elmwood in the 17-team field. On the boys side, Eastwood, Lake and Elmwood finished eighth, ninth and 10th, respectively.

Lake’s Micah Balsmeyer finished sixth to become the top local finisher in the boys race.

The event, which kicks off the season, adds the unique feature of being at night.

“It’s really different,” Emch said. “It feels unreal, just because we’re so used to running in the light. It’s really fun, with more energy. You get to put on lights, glow in the dark paint, glitter and all that. It’s just fun, especially being the beginning of the season.”

Organizers call the event a “unique, fun and competitive five-kilometer race” to start the cross country season. The night course went through the lit-up pass in the woods behind Eastwood’s football stadium, and finished under the lights at Jerry Rutherford Stadium.

The event included concessions, music, shirts, glow sticks and glow paint.

This year, organizers also added free rope bracelets for all participants, which Darin’s sister, Emily, said was something her brother was known for.

“Darin loved to travel and when he went to international places, he would buy a rope bracelet and wear them,” she said. “It was kind of neat to see everyone wearing them. It’s unreal. They loved it.”

The race honors the memory of Darin Maverick Goodman, a former student and runner who graduated with honors in 2011 from Eastwood and magna cum laude in 2016 from the University of Toledo with a degree in chemical engineering.

A global project engineer for Air Products out of Allentown, Pa., Goodman had an affinity for traveling globally, seeing 14 countries and 29 states before passing away tragically while overseas on June 30, 2018, at the age of 25.

“I think just the fact that Darin was an avid sports kid (adds importance to this event),” Darin’s mother, Tammy, said. “He just loved sports. He was very, very passionate about it, and a night run is very, very reflective of Darin.”

Darin’s father, Kevin, said that the plan is to build off the success of the event next year with plans to host a golf outing and a 5K ahead of the Darin Goodman Night Invite to raise money.

“This event is to honor our son, to remember him in all his ventures,” he said. “He loved cross country. He loved track, and he loved the camaraderie.”

Emch, a decorated senior on this year’s team, won the inaugural event last year before finishing runner-up on Saturday in 19:04.04. Her goal is to break 18 this year.

“I was working really hard this summer, but it felt different going in knowing it was my last year,” she said. “I just wanted to go out, have fun and give it my all.

“Obviously, I ran a little slower, which is a little sad, but you’re not going to do better every year, and there’s certain parts of the season where I’ll do better. Running is unpredictable. You’re not going to PR every meet, so mentally knowing that and being present with myself (is important).”

Eastwood’s head coach, Nathan Howard, said it was a “pretty easy decision” to host the event, and he said having a really good coaching staff made it easier.

“Taking on something like this by myself is not something I could do,” he said. “We thought the meet got a lot better this year. The teams were better. As far as what you see in Northwest Ohio, I don’t think you’re going to see a better meet run than what you saw tonight.”

Howard looks forward to a great year from Emch, and he’s looking for improvement for many of his other young runners after losing a lot to graduation.

“Leah is going to have a great year,” he said. “We have a lot of other girls who are going to have to learn how to step up. We graduated seven girls last year. For us, that’s a lot. We have a lot of unproven girls. I think there’s a lot of potential. We just didn’t see it tonight.

“(In the end), it was our first meet. We knew we’d have to find some things out, especially with our girls because there’s so many new runners, but I think we’ll be okay by the end of the year for sure.”

Howard was happy with this year’s event, and he loves how the community supports the student-athletes.

“You don’t see too many free meets anymore,” he said. “They’re charging in the park, they charge to get in, they charge for whatever. This is completely free for a reason. We want people. We want kids coming up from the school and cheering kids on.

“That’s the kind of feeling we’re looking for here. We wanted the kids to stay on the field and cheer their teammates on. Just bringing energy.

“Cross country isn’t something where the kids get cheered on that much. So having the stands here and having an announcer isn’t something we ever see. We wanted to give them a unique experience, and I think we have done that.”

Top 30 – Local Finishers

2. Leah Emch (Eastwood) – 19:04.04

15. Alayna Beasley (Elmwood) – 20:52.43

28. Laura Tanner (Elmwood) – 21:37.63

Non-scoring teams: NWOCA (29:12.18/four finishers); Maumee (26:03.12/three finishers); Woodmore (29:35.11/one finisher)

BOYS RESULTS

Average time listed

1. Anthony Wayne – 16:48.20

2. Liberty-Benton – 17:39.02

3. Northview – 17:45.51

4. Huron – 17:43.77

5. Margaretta – 18:09.36

6. Pettisville – 18:21.07

7. Delta – 18:23.92

8. Eastwood – 18:59.34

9. Lake – 19:34.10

10. Elmwood – 19:33.89

11. Maumee – 20:08.06

12. Woodmore – 20:08.50

13. Ayersville – 20:42.06

14. Fostoria – 20:58.38

15. Willard – 21:30.46

16. Central Catholic – 22:55.00

17. NWOCA – 22:13.58

Top 30 – Local Finishers

6. Micah Balsmeyer (Lake) – 16:56.98

26. Luke Steep (Lake) – 18:03.21

28: Dylan Armentrout (Elmwood) – 18:10.68

29. Henry Howard (Eastwood) – 18:12.12

GIRLS RESULTS

Average time listed

1. St. Ursula Academy – 20:52.88

2. Amherst Steele – 20:48.16

3. Notre Dame – 21:25.75

4. Huron – 21:13.11

5. Eastwood – 21:58.10

6. Northview – 22:23.27

7. Elmwood – 22:36.32

8. Anthony Wayne – 22:42.58

9. Delta – 22:53.03

10. Liberty-Benton – 23:17.65

11. Pettisville – 23:03.44

12. Willard – 25:31.70

13. Margaretta – 25:14.30

14. Ayersville – 27:30.05

15. Fostoria – 28:11.43

16. Central Catholic – 28:12.38

17. Lake – 32:15.98