Eastwood cross country runner Leah Emch finished nearly one minute ahead of everyone else in winning a Northern Buckeye Conference individual championship. (Nicholas Huenefeld | Sentinel-Tribune)
By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
OAK HARBOR — Eastwood’s Leah Emch crossed the finish line nearly a minute before anyone else, dusting the competition in dominant fashion Saturday at the Northern Buckeye Conference Cross Country Championships at Oak Harbor High School.
“I thought it was fun,” Emch said. “It was a really good course. It was flat and there was some wind, but I just think it was a really fun course. And it also (meant a lot) because it’s the NBC, and we have everyone together for the last time.”
Emch captured her second-straight NBC title in 18:39.70, almost 57 seconds ahead of Maumee’s Arriana Dugan’s 19:36.64. In doing so, she gives Eastwood three straight individual champions, joining Haley Sponaugle in 2022.
On top of that, Emch concludes her career with four top-three finishes at the NBC Championships along with a second place performance in 2022 and a third place outing in 2021. She bested her top NBC performance time-wise by nearly one minute and 20 seconds.
Emch also topped last year’s NBC time by nearly one minute and 28 seconds, in large part due to a faster course and better weather.
“It poured during last year’s race,” she said. “There was also a huge hill, and it was super slick and muddy. It was just awful conditions. Today, there wasn’t any rain, and it was really flat.
“I was (almost) a minute and a half faster or so because it was just rough last year, and it was freezing. I was dying for a blanket and shaking. Today was really nice weather and a really good course.”
As a team, Eastwood finished second behind Genoa.
Senior Emily Payne (9th, 21:40.45) finished in the top 10, while a pair of sophomores, Brynn Sheets (11th, 21:51.20) and Keira Dawson (12th, 21:53.77), finished in the top 15 for the Eagles.
“It was just the culmination of a really good year for us,” Eastwood head coach Nathan Howard said. “We were happy with the way we performed. Little things could have been better, but they fought hard and that’s all we asked them to do.
“The girls knew it was going to be a fight with Genoa. They have a really good team. Hats off to them for sure.”
Otsego finished third as a team, highlighted by an eighth-place finish from sophomore Kate Cline in 21:21.83. Freshman Emilee Harrwaldt (14th, 22:01.06), sophomore Austyn Troendle (21st, 22:31.33) and junior Tessa Conrad (25th, 23:25.90) also finished among the top 25.
The lone senior for the Knights, Celeste Ellerbrock, set a new PR by around one minute and 20 seconds.
Otsego head coach Brandon Fitch was pleased with his team’s performance on Saturday, which he said included a lot of PRs.
Several underclassmen also made all-league, which Fitch added makes for a bright future.
“The girls worked hard,” he said. “We knew Eastwood and Genoa would be tough. We ran about where we thought we would, a little faster than we thought we would, but place-wise right where we were.”
Rossford’s Leah Matthews finished fifth individually in 20:16.71, while Lake’s Tabitha Balsmeyer checked in at 13th in 21:57.56.
NBC Girls XC Championship Results
Team Results
1. Genoa – 39
2. Eastwood – 50
3. Otsego – 90
4. Lake – 152
5. Fostoria – 153
*Oak Harbor, Maumee and Rossford only competed individually.
Individual Results (Top 10)
1. Leah Emch (Eastwood) – 18:39.7
2. Arriana Dugan (Maumee) – 19:36.6
3. Tatum Szych (Genoa) – 19:49.0
4. Stella Rethman (Genoa) – 20:14.7
5. Leah Matthews (Rossford) – 20:16.7
6. Olivia Cherry (Oak Harbor) – 20:20.9
7. Lindsey Brown (Genoa) – 21:18.0
8. Kate Cline (Otsego) – 21:21.8
9. Emily Payne (Eastwood) – 21:40.4
10. Olivia Martin (Genoa) – 21:46.1
