The Bowling Green girls cross country team won its second straight Northern Lakes League Cardinal Division championship on Saturday. (Photo courtesy Patrick Carney)
FREMONT — The Bowling Green girls cross country team concluded the Bobcats’ sweep of Northern Lakes League championships at Fremont’s Walsh Park in Fremont Saturday.
It is also the second straight year BG has swept both championships, and concluded a Wood County sweep of NLL titles, including Perrysburg taking both the boys and girls championships in the Buckeye Division.
BG scored 32 points, followed by Napoleon (48), Sylvania Southview (89), Fremont Ross (91), Springfield (140) and Clay (142).
BG freshman Lilly Downey placed second (19:16.5), sophomore Kate Scarletto-Scholl placed fifth (19:54.8), senior Averie Crawford placed sixth (19:58.7), senior Natalie Neeson placed eighth (20:26.7), freshman Kate Smith placed 11th (20:41.2), senior Shelby Janes placed 12th (20:41.6), and senior Annie Oberlander placed 15th (20:55.5).
The team has had to reset after facing adversity a few weeks earlier.
“Very happy with this result,” BG coach Pat Carney said. “Three weeks ago, our team was experiencing some midseason aches and pains and we were forced to keep a few of our runners out of a meet at Liberty Center and Napoleon got the best of us that day.
“The Wildcats are a much-improved cross country team and currently ranked 15th in the OATCCC State Division II coaches poll. Our girl spent the last few weeks really working hard at practice and mentally preparing for this race and the postseason,” Carney continued.
“We were very proud of the way the girls stayed patient in the race today and ran with confidence. This was a tremendous race for the girls going into the Division 1 district meet next weekend.”
Downey was less than 13 seconds behind NLL Cardinal Division champion Gwen Huddle, a freshman from Napoleon who crossed the line in 19:03.8. Carney says Downey leads a freshman class that has a bright future.
“We had a very strong freshman class join an already talented group of upperclassmen this season and everyone came together and accepted the daily challenge of pushing each other to continually improve,” Carney said.
“Lilly Downey is learning so much this year about what this sport is all about. She works hard and is very talented. This can be a long season for a freshman, and she is handling it very well,” Carney continued. The 19:16 time she ran today is one of the fastest times we have seen at BG in many years.
Carney says it was good to have athletes from all classes have success.
“As a sophomore, Kate Scarletto-Scholl has been extremely consistent and has been rock solid in our varsity team all year. Her fifth-place finish today was outstanding and the first time she has broken the 20-minute mark.
“The other (All-NLL) first team runner today was senior Averie Crawford. Her leadership and work ethic have been invaluable on the team, and she has had an outstanding season. She also broke the 20-minute mark for the first time in her career.
“Kale Smith, and Madison Carney (second in the open race with a time of 21:09) are also freshmen who have added a sense of urgency to the team and helped inspire incredible, positive team competition which has made the whole team better.
“Natalie Neeson, Shelby Janes, and Annie Oberlander are all seniors who want nothing more than to see this team go very deep in the postseason. All three ran terrific races today.”
Plus, Carney had a couple others in the open race, which translates into junior varsity in other sports, who are helping him build depth in the program.
“Maddie Evans (open race champion in 21 minutes) and Emarie Headley (third in the open race at 21:46) along with Carney will continue into the postseason and help push this team to their full potential,” coach Carney said.
