By Cort Reynolds
VAN WERT - The Ada cross country teams competed at the 16-team Van Wert Health Hospital Invitational Saturday.

"It was a great morning for a cool fall run," said Bulldog head coach Josh Klein. 

Junior Riley Ferguson was the top Ada runner on the day. He finished 82nd out of 113 runners in a time of 21:03.9.

Sophomore Robby Waters ran second for the Bulldogs. He crossed the finish line 97th in 22:49.4. Classmate Connor Daugherty was 102nd with a time of 24:29.7.

Senior Cole Anspaugh came in 108th with a time of 25:28.2.

Junior Hayden Schmidt of Anna won the individual race with a time of 16:17.7.

Host Van Wert edged Columbus Grove 56-59 for the team crown. Anna came in third with 85 points, while Bluffton finished eighth with 215.

Freshman Elsie Allen topped the three Ada girls by finishing 118th out of 129 runners in 29:32.1.

Freshman Melia Santillanez came in two spots behind her in 29:36.3. Classmate Jillian Hazelton ended up 124th in 32:26.3.

"We had a great meet," said Klein. "Two of my girls, Melia and Elsie, officially broke 30 minutes for the first time. This was our goal for them, and it's always exciting for a new runner to be under 30 minutes for a five K.

"Now we will set our eyes towards working on a new goal time. No other personal records were set."

Anna won the 12-team girls title with 62 points. Senior Madison Langdon of Lincolnview captured first in the individual race with a time of 19:54.1.

The next Bulldog meet is slated for Tuesday, September 29 at the Bath Invitational. Ada also runs next Saturday, October 3 at the Kalida Invitational. The Kenton Invite is Oct. 8.

"We look forward to these last few meets and continuing to drop off time, and fielding a full boys team the rest of the season," (with the addition of golfer Jacob Morgan), said Klein.

"We are fighting some soreness across the team, but we will keep training and preparing for our conference meet (Oct. 17). We won't be as competitive as Grove, Lincolnview and Crestview, but my goal is to fight for fifth or sixth place out of the eight league schools with boys teams," he added.