UNION — Oh so close.

That’s been the story for Owensville Dutchgirl track and field over the last month.

Seeing Montgomery County edge them by half-a-point in the OHS Relays back in mid-April, Dutchgirl track looked to defend their Four Rivers Conference (FRC) title on the track from last year in this year’s annual meet at Union High School back on Monday, April 29.

Back and forth with the host Lady Wildcats throughout the meet, Owensville’s Dutchgirl came up a point shy of back-to-back FRC team titles finishing with 169 team points versus Union’s 170.

In spite of five conference championships from the Dutchgirls, Union won seven events mainly of the jumping variety.

Two of Owensville’s individual conference titles came on the track.

Decided by a photo finish, Dutchgirl sophomore Katie Candrl won the varsity girls 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.89.

Adding to her win in the 100m hurdles, Candrl also placed second in the 300m hurdles (48.60), second in the pole vault (10-0) and second in the triple jump (32-05) to earn All-FRC honors in four events. 

Leading the varsity girls 3200-meter run start to finish, junior Sophia Ashner won her third straight FRC title in the race with a winning time of 12:34.79. Mekayla Gibson placed second in 12:50.92 while Paige Heckelmann also took fourth in 13:24.06.

That was not Ashner’s only FRC title on the track.

Teaming up with Kendra Hults, Abby Koepke and Heckelmann, Ashner and the Dutchgirl 4x800-meter relay team won a FRC title in a time of 10:36.39.

Ashner (2nd, 5:46.98) and Gibson (3rd, 5:52.12) also earned All-FRC honors for their top-three finishes in the varsity girls 1600m run. Heckelmann’s time of 6:03.25 was the fourth fastest but was placed ninth for scoring purposes due to a rule at the FRC meet limiting the top two athletes from each school scoring in an event.

Hults added to her winning leg of the 4x800m with a second-place time of 2:31.93 in the varsity girls 800-meter run.

Two other Dutchgirl relay teams earned All-FRC honors at Union.

Ending the meet with a second-place time of 4:27.78 in the varsity girls 4x400-meter relay was the Dutchgirl foursome of Alexis Branson, Paige Tayloe, Koepke and Hults.

Taking third in the 4x200-meter relay was the Dutchgirl quartet of Alexus Wenkel, Kate Angell, Isabelle Bruckerhoff and Tayloe in a time of 1:57.76.

In varsity girl’s field events, a pair of Dutchgirl seniors left Union’s E.A. Stierberger Stadium with gold medals.

Coming out for track for the first time as a senior, Liana Miller threw her way to a FRC crown in the varsity girls javelin with a winning throw of 106 feet even. Veronica Courtouise made it two Dutchgirl seniors in the top three of the event with a third-place throw of 94-07. 

A two-time state qualifier in the discus, Dutchgirl senior Bailey Rasmussen won a FRC title in the shot put with a throw of 35 feet, six inches. She also placed second in the discus with a toss of 111-03.

In spite of their five-year reign of terror over the FRC coming to an end, Coach Candrl’s varsity Dutchmen had four earn All-FRC honors.

Two of them came in the varsity boys 800m run with Bam Wizeman taking second in 2:08.28 followed by sophomore Austin Terry’s third-place time of 2:11.98.

Racing against juniors and a very good senior in St. James’ Grant Conway, Dutchmen freshman Alan Kopp just missed All-FRC honors with fourth-place times of 16.51 in the 110-meter hurdles and 42.14 in the 300-meter hurdles.

Adding the javelin to his primary event in the pole vault, Dutchmen senior Jacob Luther posted a third-place throw of 137-03 giving him All-FRC honors in the varsity boys javelin. Luther also cleared 13-6 in the pole vault to finish second behind Pacific’s Gavin McDonald  who won the event with a new FRC meet record of 14-06.

Nearly reaching the 20-foot mark, Riley Wehmeyer edged St. James’ Austin Ridenhour by 1.25 inches to place third in the varsity boys long jump with a distance of 19-11.

Seeing their varsity counterparts place fourth, Owensville’s junior varsity Dutchmen claimed a FRC team title with 187.5 points.

Winning seven events and placing second in two others, OHS dominated the relay portion of the meet winning three of the four races.

Sprinting to FRC gold in the JV boys 4x100-meter relay was the Dutchmen squad of Ashton Kramme, Trenten Watkins, Michael Adkison and Reagan Wehmeyer in a time of 49.83.

Running half a lap to victory in the JV boys 4x200m relay was the OHS team of Michael Adkison, Reagan Wehmeyer, Watkins and Kramme.

Ending the meet with another FRC relay title in the JV boys 4x400m was the OHS foursome of Christian Lowes, Freddy Zheng, Harm Rademacher and Dylan Fudge.

Placing second in the JV boys 4x800m relay was the Dutchmen quartet of Alexander Kellogg, Zheng, Lowes and Fudge.

Michael Miles topped the field by nearly 10 feet winning the JV boys javelin with a throw of 97-05.

Adding to his winning legs of the 4x100m and 4x200m relays was Michael Adkison clearing 11-0 to win the JV boys pole vault.

Reagan Wehmeyer topped the JV boys triple jump with a winning leap of 38-01.