Findlay's Stine champion again, this time at Grove Invite

COLUMBUS GROVE INV. COLUMBUS GROVE – Findlay High School senior Russell Stine has competed in two major cross country meets this fall.And they haven't caught him yet.For the second straight week, Stine finished ahead of the pack, this time winning the boys division of the Columbus Grove Invitational on Saturday. His winning of 15 minutes, 44.3 seconds was just a bit off the 15:39.3 he ran in winning the Norm Bray Invitational a week earlier, but was still almost 10 seconds ahead of West Liberty Salem's Asher Cole (15:53.9).Camden Stechschulte also ran a strong race, finishing ninth overall with a time of 16:28.9.Findlay's boys team placed 12th and the FHS girls were seventh in the meet, which brought together 45 boys teams, 37 girls teams and over 400 runners.Corbin Johnson (19:07.0), Troy Palte (19:07.1) and Dexter Stripe (19:11.7) rounded out the scoring for Findlay's boys team. Gabby Brankamp was 23rd overall (20:54.5) and Abanna Dotson 26th (21:03.1) for Findlay's girls, with Kayla Moyer (30th, 21:14.7), Isla Crim (36th, 21:35.5) and Raia Kooman (71st, 22:45.4) rounding out the lineup.Ottawa-Glandorf finished third (145) behind Fremont Ross (11) and Liberty Center (126) in the girls portion of the meet.O-G's Maci Maag was ninth overall (20:01.4), Liana Fortman ws 21st (20:50.6) and Kayt Cory 28th (21:06.4), with Brea Recker (31st, 21:15.9) and Carly Siefker (34th, 21:29.5) adding top 35 placings as well.Elmwood's Janessa Childress ran a 20:36.8 to finish 16th overall in leading the Royals girls team. Alayna Beasley was 40th (21:40.4).Bluffton's Xandra Gatchel had a top 20 finish, running a 20:49.5 to place right at that number. Columbus Grove's Alexa Kamphaus was also among the top 50, placing 39th overall (21:38.6).Elmwood was ninth and Columbus Grove 14th among the 45 boys teams in the field.Henry Good was tenth overall (16:36.6) and Evan Strausbaugh 24th (17:28.7) for Elmwood. Columbus Grove got top 50 placings from Caiden Squillante (8th, 16:22.1), Aiden Vogt (19th, 17:2.3) and Zach Bryan (49th, 18:07.4).Leipsic's Calvin Miller had the next best time – 17:36.1 – among area runners in the boys race. Wyatt Foust (17:51.8) and Micah Benedict (18:07.6) topped Cory-Rawson's team, Atticus Prothro (18:15.9) and Owen Shoemaker (18:16.6) led Elmwood, Cohen Levenhagen (18:20.0) had the top time for Liberty-Benton, Colin Treece (18:57.7) led Van Buren and Gage Recker (19:00.9) set the pace for O-G. BUCYRUS ELKS INV. BUCYRUS – Upper Sandusky runners placed third and fourth in both the boys and girls races on Saturday when the Rams swept the team titles at the Bucyrus Elks Cross Country Invitational.Carter Pohlman was third (16:58.70) and Henry Minehart fourth (17:05.70) in the boys overall standings. Franklin Arnold (6th, 17:22.90) and Andrew Leightey (7th, 17:23.60) also had top 10 placings for Upper. Joshua Craig (15th, 18:52.40) completed the scoring for the Rams, who were well in front of the five-team field with 28 points. Elyria and Marion Pleasant both had 74 points, with the tie broken by the placement of both teams No. 6 runner.In the girls 5,000-meter race, Jocelyn Leightey was third (20:10.90) and Madison Miles fourth (20:24.10) in leading Upper to a 41-point total. Pleasant was second (60) in the six-team girls field.Macie Clark (17th, 22:34.50), Felicity Bils (23rd, 23:30.80) and Abigail Ault (24th, 23:50.60) completed Upper's score.