Wildcats run strong at Ottawa triangular

Louisburg’s Savannah Reinhart finished in third place during Thursday’s triangular at the Eisenhower Road Course in Ottawa. Reinhart ran a time of 25 minutes and 55 seconds and was one of nine girls to earn medals.

OTTAWA – The Louisburg High School cross country team took a little different approach from its usual routine.

Normally, the Wildcats will compete in large invitationals against several teams. Louisburg scaled it down a notch Thursday when they traveled to Ottawa.

Louisburg took to the Eisenhower Road Course, and for the only time this season, will run together as one team. The Wildcats competed against Ottawa and Spring Hill in a triangular and left with nine medals on the girls side and five on the boys.

“This meet is great for our kids,” Louisburg coach John Reece said. “It is a small setting and having them run together really lets them see how they rank within the team. It really benefits the new runners having their teammates around them.

“I really like the triangular format early in the year. It takes some pressure off of the kids and lets them run.”

Sophomore Savannah Reinhart led the Lady Cats with a third place finish in the 5-kilometer race. Reinhart ran a time of 25 minutes and 55 seconds and was just 30 seconds off of the first-place pace.

Junior Madelynn Yalowitz also had a big day for the Lady Cats as she was fourth in 26:11 and fellow junior Kaitlyn Gaza was sixth in 26:28. Senior Abby Bergman (27:07) came in eighth and junior Liz Hildreth (27:57) was 12^th.

Mara Justesen (30:40), Lexie Reece (30:42), Maddie McDaniel (30:44), Tomi Frederes (31:20) finished 14^th, 15^th, 16^th and 17^th, respectively.

Lilly Mick (20^th), Lily Cook (21^st), Bryn O’Meara (22^nd), Alex Miller (23^rd), Alexa Goodspeed (24^th), Hailey Crowder (26^th), Cierra Rose (27^th), Ryan Caldwell (29^th) and Grace Rolofson (30^th) also ran for the Louisburg girls.

Sophomore Wyatt Reece ran a time of 20:49 to finish eighth overall to lead the Louisburg boys. Senior Devyn Small came in 10^th in 21:57 and fellow senior Zach Minor was 12^th with a time of 22:06.

Junior Austin Raetzel (23:09) and sophomore Jarod Rose (23:38) also had top 20 finishes in 16^th and 17^th, respectively.

Eddie Murphy (24^th), Spencer Rogers (25^th), Michael Shaner (27^th), Gareth Baus (28^th) and Kennedy Unthank (32^nd) also ran for Louisburg.

“For those who ran with the team last year, we saw improvement when compared to last year’s performances,” coach Reece said. “My new runners ran better races even if time did not show it.”

Although they were competing against two teams, it was the course that provided the biggest test for Louisburg. Like in their previous race, the Wildcats had to deal with a lot of steep hills.

“All courses have their challenges and Ottawa has their hills,” coach Reece said. “They are so proud of the hills that they have named one of them Big Buddha. The hills always seem to pop up at inopportune times like right after the first mile and in the last half mile of the race.”

Louisburg will get back to its normal invitational schedule this Thursday when it travels to Wellsville. The first race is set to begin at 4 p.m.