April 25, 1999

Wayne wins repeat title in Bill Krause Relays

By Ed Fox
Sports Writer

Anthony Wayne finished strong to repeat as girls champion at the Bill Krause Relays Saturday at Heidelberg College track.

The Generals finished with 77 points to hold off Dublin Coffman (64), Hilliard Davidson (63), Sandusky (63) and Worthington Kilbourne (59) in a closely-contested battle. Anthony Wayne won the title last year with 87 points and that came on the heels of back-to-back championships by Worthington Kilbourne.

Seneca East tied with Perkins for eighth place with 41 points and Columbian was 13th in the 16-team field with 16 points.

The Tigers spread their scoring around, scoring in seven of the 20 events.

Mandy Everhart led the way for Seneca East with first in the 300 low hurdles in 49.1.

As usual, the Tigers scored big in the distance events with senior Briana Shook leading the way with a third in the 3200 with 11:21.1.

The Tigers also took second in the distance medley in 13:11.0 with the team of Sarah Ruffing, Sarah Reiter, Stephanie Phillips and Shook and they were also second in the 3200 relay with 10:05.8 with the team of Niki Hines, Brandi Hines, Kristen Elmlinger and Ruffing. They were also third in the 6400 relay in 23:05.8 with the quartet of Phillips, Elmlinger, Jennifer Niedermier and Jennifer Riddlebaugh.

"Mandy really ran an excellent race in the 300 hurdles," said Seneca East girls head coach Dick Verhoff. "That is the first time she has been in the 49s and she was really quick the first 200 meters of the race.

"What can you say about Bri. She was steady again and that was her season best by nearly 20 seconds. She hasn't run a lot this spring, but you know she is going to make her presence felt as the season goes along.

"The 4 x 800 and distance medley teams really did a nice job. The distance runners were asked to go up against some of the best Division I and II runners in the state and they answered the challenge," said Verhoff.

The Tigers also got a fifth from Niki Hines in the 1600 with 5:28.4 and the team of Brandi Hines, Ashley Martin, Reiter and Jackie Fries took sixth in the 1600 relay with 4:19.4.

"That is an excellent effort by Hines in the 1600. She is really getting stronger and stronger as the season moves on. Jackie Fries also had a very solide 63.2 in the 400, but didn't place. It's a real pleasure for our athletes to be able to run in this meet against some of the best competition in the state," added Verhoff.

Jenni Ziegler paced Columbian with first place in the 100 hurdles with a 16.5 clocking.

The Tornadoes scored in three other events including fifth in the shuttle hurdles with 1:13.2, fifth in the 6400 relay with 23:40.5 and fifth in the discus with 270-7.

"Jenni ran well in the 100 hurdles," said Columbian head coach Amy Cooper. "She continues to drop her time and is really going after the school record (15.6)."

Although the Tornadoes didn't place in some events, their times were much improved.

"We had our season best by over 12 seconds in the 3200 relay with seventh place in 10:15, our best by six seconds in the 1600 relay with 4:24.1, a fine 1:55.4 in the 800 relay, Jenni Waldock had a 52.5 in the 300 hurdles, Chrissy Moyer improved by four seconds in the 3200 and Emily Gosche had 27.9 in the 200.

"In the 6400 relay, three of the four girls were under six minutes. I think the tough competition really helped the girls drop their times and that was a big reason for our improvement today. We didn't score a lot of points, but the main thing was the improvement of the girls in most areas," said Cooper.