Pirates golden

COLUMBUS - It wasn't easy for longtime Bluffton track and field coach Steve Bruskotter to walk away from a program he was part of for more than three decades.

But after Saturday, the decision is a little easier.

The Bluffton boys won the Division III boys state title with 54 points at Ohio State's Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium while the girls claimed fifth.

In the boys meet, Gates Mills Gilmour Academy was second with 40 points, New Bremen finished third (29). Delphos St. John's was fifth (25), while Columbus Grove finished sixth (23).

Bruskotter - who has been the head coach for 32 years - said he felt like the timing was right to step aside.

"We've had some good teams here at Bluffton," Bruskotter said. "We've had many good athletes here. We've been state runner-ups three times.

"But, this is the best group of athletes I've ever brought down here ... boys and girls. I told them a couple weeks ago that I was thinking about it (retirement). I figured this was as good of a time as any."

The boys garnered victories in four events, en route to winning their first-ever state title.

Senior John Guagenti broke the D-III state meet record in the 400, clocking a winning time of 47.46 seconds. He also won the 200 in 22.17.

The Bluffton boys 800 relay broke its own state record - after breaking it in Friday's preliminaries - en route to a first-place finish on Saturday (1:28.47).

Then, in the last event of the day, Bluffton nearly broke the state record in the 1,600 relay, winning in 3:21.44. Both relays were made up of Rico Pena, Zach Guagenti, Jesse Herr and John Guagenti.

Kory Place helped the Bluffton cause with a solid second-place performance in the shot put on Friday (56-feet-2 ¾).

Guagenti said he joked with his coach throughout the season about their chances of winning a team title.

"I would tell ‘Brus' (Bruskotter's nickname) that if I won these events ... we would score this many points ... and if our relays won, we would have this many ... then we could win state," Guagenti said. "Coach would say, ‘Whatever you say John'.

"I just think ‘Brus' didn't want to set himself up for failure, which is OK."

After breaking its own state record in the 800 relay for the second consecutive day, Bluffton then finished off the meet with an exciting victory in 1,600 relay.

In the 1,600 relay, Herr - the third leg - was sitting in sixth place when he received the baton. By the time Herr reached John Guagenti (anchor leg) to pass the baton, Herr was in second.

When Guagenti got the baton, the race seemed to be over within seconds.

"We ran well ... our hand-offs went well," Guagenti said. "We did everything we wanted to do down here."

Ottawa-Glandorf takes sixth

Ottawa-Glandorf's girls finished sixth in Division II.

Abbie Selhorst ran a personal-best 11:14.15 on Saturday in the 3,200 to notch a fourth-place finish.

Allison Schroeder finished third in the 300 hurdles (44.50).Chelsea Imm finished fifth in the pole vault (10-8).

The 1,600 relay of Jenna Ellerbrock, Dana Lanwehr, Emily Heitmeyer and Schroeder  finished third place (3:58.88).

St. John's boys take 400 relay

The Delphos St. John's boys 400 relay (Tony Reindel, Collin Etzkorn, Jay Leininger and Cameron Hermiller) won the Division III state title Saturday (43.21). This was the third state title in this event for Hermiller.

Other Saturday Notables

- Shawnee sophomore Andrea Glenn finished fourth in the 800 (2:17.93).

Glenn said she was pleased with her performance, but said she already has her sights set high for next year.

"I knew the girls would start out really fast," she said. "I wanted to come in and PR...which I did. Next year, I'm going to try to get top-three."

- After finishing with the fourth-fastest time in Friday's preliminaries, LCC's 400 relay was disqualified because of a false start.

- Wapakoneta's Hannah Tabler and Chelsea Lucas finished ninth and 10th respectively in the D-I pole vault. Both vaulters cleared 11-4.

- Ottoville freshman Shayla Siefker finished sixth in the D-III 1,600 (5:14.53).

- Parkway's Marian Bevington took third in both the long jump (16-11) and 100 hurdles (15.25).

- Columbus Grove's 1,600 relay finished third (Paige Hefner, Ella Diller, Grace Needler and Jaimie Lewis) with a 3:58.04.

The 800 relay (Kimberly Selhorst, Hefner, Diller and Lewis) finished fifth.

- Delphos St. John's girls 400 relay (Lindsey Looser, Lauren Burgei, Dana Martin and Allison Reindel) finished fifth (50.11).

- Celina senior Julie Snyder finished fifth in the 300 hurdles (44.43), sixth in the 100 hurdles (14.8) and eighth in the long jump (18-2). Teammate Eryn Langenkamp was seventh in the long jump (18-2 ½).

- Delphos Jefferson's Tim Sanders finished third in the Division III 300 hurdles in 38.95.

- Kenton's 400 relay took second in Division II with a run of 43.17. The team included Dailyn Campbell, Ryan LaVerne, Andrew Tillman and Corey Manns.