Six VGH runners reach best times of the season to place third at Moultrie-Douglas County meet

By Fred Kroner
fred@mahometnews.com

Runner-up Zach Ruwe helped the Blue Devils to a third-place team finish on Saturday (Sept. 19) at the Moultrie-Douglas County cross-country meet at Tuscola’s Wimple Park.

Ruwe ran a 3-mile season-best time of 17 minutes and 25 seconds.

He was one of six runners on the boys’ team to achieve their best time of the season.

Tuscola and Okaw Valley were the only teams to finish ahead of VG/Heritage.

Other VG/Heritage participants were: Daniel Olson (14th in personal-best 19:13), Rowan Denmark-Collins (15th in 19:18), Ethan Meneely (16th in personal-best 19:38), Lukas Carey (17th in personal-best 19:56), Aidan Ashbrook (20th in personal-best 20:18), Logan Chapman (34th in personal-best 23:40) and Austin Zoch (38th in 27:40).

“The boys made some noise today, with freshman Zach Ruwe seizing the challenge of strong competition to surge in the last quarter mile to pass and create an 11-second gap ahead of third-place (Tuscola’s Jackson Barrrett, 17:34),” VG/Heritage coach Jim Kestner said. “Zach’s finish was a terrific reward for persevering through several recent races where he led the pack alone with no one to push him.

“Senior Daniel Olson extended his incredible performance of setting a career PR in every meet this year, his fifth.”

VG/H competes on consecutive days to start this week, heading to Oakland on Monday (Sept. 21) and to Dodds Park in Champaign on Tuesday (Sept. 22).