Bontrager and Ravens return to the track

By Jeff Yoder
Posted 3/23/22

Hillcrest senior Leah Bontrager was a freshman the last time she ran the 1500-meter race for the Ravens. 

A stress fracture kept the four-time state cross country qualifier out of action last …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Bontrager and Ravens return to the track

Posted

Hillcrest senior Leah Bontrager was a freshman the last time she ran the 1500-meter race for the Ravens. 

A stress fracture kept the four-time state cross country qualifier out of action last year after she lost her sophomore season to the pandemic. 

“It was really fun,” Bontrager said about her first meet back. “I kind of came in not really having high expectations, but just wanting to have fun. And I was really excited because I could do relays with other girls.”

Bontrager’s freshman season was also the last time that the Hillcrest girls had enough runners to put together a relay. 

The Raven relay of Malia Yoder, Morgyn Nafziger, Delaney Shaw and Bontrager took third in the sprint medley and finished second in the distance medley. 

Despite having just five total participants, the Hillcrest girls finished sixth out of the eight teams with 34 points. 

Shaw picked up a second place finish for the Ravens with a long jump of 14-05.5. Bontrager finished less than two tenths of a second behind Van Buren’s Payten Poling in the 1500-meter race with a second-place finish of 5:49. 

“I was in third place for almost the whole first lap, and then I passed a girl,” Bontrager said. “I caught up to the Van Buren girl who was in first and I was so close to passing her at the end.”

Yoder and Nafziger added points by finishing fifth and sixth in the 100-meter dash. Yoder and Shaw split a point after tying for sixth in the 200-meter dash with times of 31.84. 

Erin Bontrager ran the 100, 200, and 400-meter races for the Ravens. All four of Leah Bontrager’s teammates are freshmen. 

“It’s really fun,” she said. “I love all of the freshmen after getting to know them through basketball and other things. They’re all fast and I knew it would be fun.”

Quang Huynh scored the only point of the meet for the Raven boys with a sixth-place finish of 27.67 in the 200-meter dash. Huynh set new personal bests in both the 200 and the 100-meter races on Monday.

Full Results