Oliver, Zibbel, Brewster among winners at NBC

TONTOGANY — Eastwood defended its Northern Buckeye Conference boys track title Saturday at Otsego, but Otsego, Elmwood, Lake and Rossford had their share of winners.

Eastwood scored 143 points to defeat second place Otsego (127), followed by Genoa (117), Lake (106), Elmwood (58), Fostoria (52), Rossford (50) and Woodmore (10).

In the high jump, Elmwood junior Micah Oliver cleared six feet, two inches to beat second and third place Fostoria junior Gavin Miller and Eastwood sophomore Andre Lewis, who both cleared six feet, but Miller was runner-up based on a tiebreaker.

Oliver said the competition got a little fierce, so fierce that when he had the chance to go for a personal record after winning the event, he decided to leave it alone.

“I’m not going to lie, I was getting a little nervous, but I knew that I would be alright,” Oliver said. “I got 6-3 last season, but I’ve never tried 6-3 this season.

“I was hoping to go for 6-4 because you always want to PR, do one better, but there is no point in matching it. I stuck at 6-2, but I think I could get 6-4, but it happens.”

Oliver remembers finishing behind then-Eastwood senior Jacob Meyer last year and thought maybe the crown was his for the taking this year. But he admits it may not be so easy next year to repeat.

“Andre Lewis from Eastwood is obviously pretty good, and last year it was Jacob Meyer who was my go-to guy and then the kid from Fostoria honestly came out of nowhere,” Oliver said.

“He’s pretty good — he floats, and if he gets a little bit of form, he will be able to stay with me, too.”

In addition, Elmwood junior Jakob Zibbel won the 1600 in a close distance range, finishing in 4:39.06 to beat second place Otsego senior Joseph Brewster (4:39.2) by less than one-fifth of a second.

“I ran exactly how my coaches and I talked about running and I executed it,” Zibbel said. “The strategy was sitting and waiting, knowing exactly where I know when I’ve got to go, and then give it everything.”

When Zibbel and Brewster were sprinting down the home stretch nearly side by side, Zibbel said he found a little push in knowing how much time he has put into it and how much winning the race mattered.

“It’s to make my dad and mom proud,” Zibbel said. “I got second last year, and I didn’t want it to happen again.

“Looking back on it, it is all just easy miles, just getting as much in as you can, almost every day, and giving everything that you have got during practice.”

However, Brewster turned around his fate, winning the 3200 by finishing in 10:25.85, but he had to hold off a strong finish from Lake sophomore Micah Balsmayer (10:26.46).

“The first mile, I started out strong and as I went along, I tried to pick them off,” Brewster said. “I decided to make a move a little bit earlier than I thought to break up the race a bit and it was tough, very tough. The sophomores this year are going to be very good during their senior year.”

Otsego senior Dakota Keifer won the 100-meter dash, finishing in 11.27 seconds to beat second place Genoa senior Griffin Meyer (11.37) by one-tenth of a second. Keifer said he was fortunate because he did not get off to a good start.

“The blocks weren’t great,” Keifer said. “I was hoping to go for the meet record (10.99 by Cole Gorski, 2014) there, but the blocks were a little bad.

“Once I got out, it was pretty good. It was just my reaction (off the blocks) — I was a little off, a little slow.”

Keifer said it wasn’t just Meyer that made him push to the finish line, it was all seven who reached the finals with him.

“I ran against a couple of them in prelims, and we were talking before and after, and when we all walked back to the blocks, we said, ‘Let’s have a good race, boys,’” Keifer said.

Otsego’s 4×800 meter relay team of sophomores Wesley Kellermeier, Nathan Strahm, and Jack Seeger and Brewster won in 8:29.66, defeating a second-place team from Lake (senior Mason Kos, sophomores Luke Steep and Balsmayer, and junior Connor McClellan), which followed in less than two seconds at 8:39.1.

“I started off with a big lead and just tried to hold it there. It was big because we didn’t win it last year, but we wanted it this year,” said Seeger, the third leg.

Brewster added, “I think we ran well as a team. I think everyone on the team is starting to show up, and I think it’s really going to pay off this postseason.”

Otsego also won the 4×100 relay behind Keifer, junior Tyler Michael, senior Carson Lathrop, and junior Jack Simpson, finishing in 44.75 to defeat a second-place Eastwood squad (senior Anthony Molina, junior Kaiden Sanchez, senior Bryce DeFalco, and sophomore Dayquan Oliver), which finished in 45.13.

Keifer said the Otsego foursome may not have won if it were not for some strategizing in the last minute.

“We just changed our order a couple days ago and we just kind of ran with it,” Keifer said. “We figured out a lineup that we thought would give us a better chance of winning, so coming out all the handoffs were pretty good. Everyone can run fast, but it made us more competitive.”

Lathrop added, “I got out pretty strong after switching the order, and it felt good for us, and we ran well. There was a lot of room to improve on, and our team is getting better every day. I’m proud of our guys.

“I got off the blocks, which allows our fast guys to end, which helped us out a lot.”

Rossford got its only individual win in the 800, but in that event, it was all-Rossford as the Bulldogs finished one-two behind winner Ian Clark, a senior who finished in 2:06.48, and second place Dylan McCann, a junior (2:08.12).

“The first lap I just knew I had to go out hard to keep everybody behind me,” Clark said. “Then, the second lap I was going to pick up my pace a little bit more, try to keep my endurance stabilized, and then through that last straightaway really kicked it in.”

McCann said chasing Clark was all the motivation he needed.

“I just tried to push myself at the end, try to keep myself in the race, and I feel like he motivates me to finish faster,” McCann said.