{"id":29387,"date":"2025-09-21T07:02:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T11:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=29387"},"modified":"2025-09-21T20:00:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T00:00:31","slug":"29387","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/21\/29387\/","title":{"rendered":"Sprunger, Watson shine in home meet for Stars; Braves attack Agony Hill in busy XC weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every high school runner from Z-Land was in action Saturday, with the Bellmont Braves traveling to New Prairie and the rest of the teams competing in Berne in the annual South Adams XC Invitational. It’s all part of the run-up to conference races and meets and, of course, with an eye on the sectional meet that is just four weeks away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The only man who could out-run Dakota Sprunger of South Adams Saturday was the exceptional Zander Ritenour of Lakewood Park Christian, who was a top-40 finisher at last year’s State Finals. Sprunger will continue to chase Ritenour later this year as both have hopes of returning to state. (Photo by Patrick Gunsett)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As part of our ongoing coverage of high school athletes, we offer you notes and times on each team, along with a detailed look at the results and team scores of all the runners on either side of the Imaginary Mountain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ethan Crockett was the third man across the line in Saturday’s South Adams Invite, helping the Jets to a 12th-place finish. (Photo by Patrick Gunsett)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Proud sponsor of local athletes on WZBD.com!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Rosalinda Medina, who set the Heritage school record a few weeks ago, was the first Heritage Patriot across the line at Saturday’s race in Berne. (Photo by Patrick Gunsett)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Notes & Times from South Adams: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Adi Rumschlag led the Jets and finished in under 24 minutes for the first time in her career. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Adi Rumschlag delivered a gutsy performance for the Adams Central Flying Jets Saturday. (Photo by Patrick Gunsett)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

-Lexi Linder had a significant improvement in her career best for the Jets, finishing third-best on the team Saturday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Emily High’s race was the best of her career for Heritage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Proud to sponsor Heritage Athletics on WZBD.com!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

-Trevor Chamberlain’s steady progression throughout the season continued in Berne Saturday as the Jet runner ran a season best 20:46.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-The Starfires got season bests from Wyatt Mann, Deacon Bierbaum, Carson Laux, Maddox Miller and Jacob Heflin for a strong team performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Corban Roth comes down the stretch for the Heritage Patriots for a top-twelve finish. (Photo by Patrick Gunsett)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

-Gavin Juricak had his best time of the season for Heritage, finishing in 19:56.7. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

-William Voglewede had a major improvement in his career best, taking 24 seconds off his time from Marion two weeks ago for the Patriots. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Notes & Times from New Prairie: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Hayden Whittenbarger led the Bellmont Braves on the charge up Agony Hill and trimmed three seconds from his best performance on the tough course, set in last year’s reace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Cayden Rauch’s time Saturday was just a few seconds short of his season best, but considering the difficulty of the New Prairie course, it likely goes down as the best performance of his career. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Quinn Buchan had another Saturday away from the volleyball team and was there to lead the Braves over the hill, finishing in 23:04.4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Sophomore Isabella Suarez broke the 26-minute mark for the first time in her career for Bellmont. Teammate Jaylin Reed was a few steps behind her, accomplishing the same. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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South Adams Cross Country Invite<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Deacon Bierbaum of South Adams stays just ahead of Corban Roth in Saturday’s 5K in Berne. (Photo by Patrick Gunsett)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Boys’ Race<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top Five Individuals: 1st-Zander Ritenour-Lakewood Park 15:51.8; 2nd-Dakota Sprunger-SA 16:54.2; 3rd-Ethan Crockett-AC 17:15.4; 4th-Caleb Vandevelde-Lakewood Park 17:24.2; 5th-Kellen Warner-Lakewood Park 17:26.4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Scores: 1st-Lakewood Park 51, 2nd-South Adams 72, 3rd-Bluffton 97, 4th-Monroe Central 97, 5th-Northfield 164, 6th-Southern Wells 185, 7th-Woodlan 209, 8th-Heritage 221, 12th-Adams Central 257<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Adams Times & Places: 2nd-Dakota Sprunger 16:54.2; 8th-Decaon Bierbaum 17:33.4; 9th-Wyatt Mann 17:37.1; 22nd-Carson Laux 18:14.7; 31st-Maddox Miller 18:49.9; 39th-Gabe Peralez 19:16.1; 40th-Jacob Heflin 19:19.1; Zhayne Wagner 20:19.5; Daniel Rupp 20:41.0; Zeke Baumer 21:00.7; Ben Rupp 24:40.7<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Heritage Times & Places: 12th-Corban Roth 17:44.6; 46th-Jaxon Kerr 19:40.3; 48th-Alex Smith 19:43.2; 55th-Gavin Juricak 19:56.7; 60th-William Voglewede 20:30.0; 68th-Nick Flores 20:49.9; 92nd-Mohammed Esarhaek 24:23.0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adams Central Times & Places: 3rd-Ethan Crockett 17:15.4; 30th-Tyler Schwartz 18:39.7; 67th-Trevor Chamberlain 20:46.0; 74th-Preston Hoffman 21:28.2; 83rd-Phillip Bayer 22:07.5<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Girls’ Race<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top Five Individuals: 1st-Kaleigh Rice-Northfield 20:15.2; 2nd-Ava Dowd-Lakewood Park 20:20.2; 3rd-Cora Kunkel-Bluffton 20:23.4; 4th-Abigail Ramseyer-Bluffton 20:29.2; 5th-Andi Watson-Monroe Central 21:12.4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Adalynn Watson, running alone for the Starfires this season, was sixth overall for the home team with an outstanding run. (Photo by Patrick Gunsett)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Team Scores: 1st-Bluffton 44, 2nd-Monroe Central 88, 3rd-Parkway (OH) 116, 4th-Woodlan 132, 5th-Lakewood Park 141, 6th-Adams Central 143, 7th-Heritage 149, 8th-Southern Wells 177<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Adams Times & Places: 6th-Adalynn Watson 21:29.9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Adams Central Times & Places: 21st-Adi Rumschlag 23:43.5; 24th-Hailey Brune 24:18.4; 28th-Lexi Linder 24:49.3; 33rd-Macy Isch 25:25.1; 37th-Ella Bluhm 25:51.3; 40th-Haley Jauregui 25:59.7; 41st-Alyssa Fruechte 25:59.7<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heritage Times & Places: 9th-Rosalinda Medina 22:42.9; 20th-Emily High 23:40.7; 32nd-Ava Gerber 25:13.6; 35th-Elise Hissong 25:35.6; 53rd-Adalina Bacon 28:18.0; 58th-Audrey Meyer 29:03.2; 61st-Addison Smith 29:30.5; Dhylan Gilbert 32:36.2<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Prairie Cross Country Invite<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boys’ Race<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Scores: 1st-SB St. Joseph’s 122, 2nd-Northwestern 130, 3rd-Hanover Central 133, 4th-Wawasee 153, 11th-Bellmont 315<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bellmont Times & Places: 31st-Hayden Whittenbarger 17:35.2; 53rd-Hudson Krull 18:08.1; 59th-Maddux Miller 18:16.6; 84th-Gavin Braun 18:47.4; 88th-Logan Whitacre 18:52.2; 95th-Owen Adams 19:06.1; 106th-Joe Kozlowski 19:19.4; Landon Rich 19:23.9; Landon Sielschott 19:33.3; Cayden Rauch 19:54.1<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Girls’ Race<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team Scores: 1st-East Noble 76, 2nd-Fairfield 100, 3rd-SB St. Joseph’s 146, 4th-Wawasee 166, 17th-Bellmont<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bellmont Times & Places: 72nd-Quinn Buchan 23:04.4; 75th-Madeline Witte 23:13.6; 76th-Sydney Angel 23:15.7; 100th-Lilly Franz 24:35.6; 113th-Bridget Juengel 25:22.8; 118th-Haylee Franz 25:28.4; 124th-Isabella Suarez 25:58.7; Jaylin Reed 25:59.3; Isabelle Buuck 27:19.4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every high school runner from Z-Land was in action Saturday, with the Bellmont Braves traveling to New Prairie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29396,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[29,13,52,15,51,28,53,26,81],"class_list":["post-29387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-adamscentral","tag-bellmont","tag-bluffton","tag-featured","tag-heritage","tag-southadams","tag-southernwells","tag-sports","tag-xc"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DSC02561-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1443&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29387"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29400,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29387\/revisions\/29400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}