Bethany Bogantz, Ahmed win Golden Eagle Award in cross country

By GARY HENERY

News Man­ag­ing Editor

Seniors Bethany Bogantz and Cameron Ahmed con­cluded their Big Wal­nut cross coun­try careers with the pre­sen­ta­tion of the cov­eted Golden Eagle Award for their respec­tive con­tri­bu­tions to the boys and girls pro­grams at the post­sea­son awards ban­quet held Wednes­day, Novem­ber 7, in the BWHS Auditorium.

Big Walnut’s Golden Eagle Award is awarded to a senior based on Char­ac­ter (40 per­cent), Schol­ar­ship (30 per­cent, 3.00 or higher GPA) and Ath­letic Abil­ity (30 per­cent). Bogantz car­ries a 4.149 GPA while Ahmed has a 3.948 GPA.

Mem­bers of the Golden Eagle girls squad join­ing Bogantz on the podium were senior Stephanie Keller, recip­i­ent of the High Point and Most Improved Run­ner awards; senior Leah Vier­tel, who was pre­sented with the New­comer Award; and junior Cather­ine Craig-Bowden and sopho­more Makenna Hem­ming, who shared the Coaches Awards.

Ahmed was joined by three team­mates, includ­ing senior A.J. Bar­ber, who earned the High Point Award; sopho­more Jared Boseker, recip­i­ent of the Most Improved Run­ner Award; and sopho­more Bobby Bogantz, win­ner of the New­comer Award.

Mak­ing the pre­sen­ta­tions were Golden Eagle head coach Gary Bran­don along with assis­tant coach Dora Riggs.

Big Walnut’s girls, 54–108 over­all, placed fifth in the Ohio Cap­i­tal Con­fer­ence Cap­i­tal Divi­sion with 127 points behind divi­sion cham­pion New Albany which totaled 33 points. Olen­tangy Orange (65 points), Olen­tangy (82) and Watkins Memo­r­ial (84) took the next three spots.

Bethany Bogantz paced the Golden Eagle indi­vid­u­als with a seventh-place fin­ish in 20 min­utes, 45.2 sec­onds, earn­ing All-OCC Sec­ond Team recog­ni­tion for her per­for­mance. Keller placed 12th at the OCC’s in 21:12.5, receiv­ing Sec­ond Team recognition.

Bogantz would go on to place 15th at the Divi­sion I Cen­tral Dis­trict Divi­sion I Cham­pi­onships, earn­ing a berth at the Regional Meet.

Big Walnut’s boys posted a 63–102 over­all mark and placed sev­enth in the OCC Cap­i­tal Divi­sion with 151 points. New Albany also claimed the boys title, scor­ing 32 points to edge past run­nerup Olentangy’s 56 points. Olen­tangy Orange took the third spot with 91 points.

Sopho­more Jonathan Kahrmann and Bar­ber earned All-OCC recog­ni­tion at the con­fer­ence meet. Kahrmann placed 26th in 17:56.6 and Bar­ber 28th in 18:00.4.

Bran­don awarded 22 var­sity let­ters, 10 to the 22 mem­bers of the girls’ ros­ter and 12 to the 14-man boys roster.

On the girls team, Bethany Bogantz and Craig-Bowden each earned their third var­sity let­ter. Second-year let­ter win­ners included sopho­mores Saman­tha Godby, Han­nah Seabrook, Addi­son Shawver, Mikaela Smith and Hem­ming along with Keller. Two seniors, Eliz­a­beth Finnegan and Vier­tel, each earned their first var­sity let­ter. Bogantz and Keller also received their Senior Plaque.

Junior var­sity awards were pre­sented to juniors Kelsey Kieffer-Jones and Mean­der Wank; to sopho­more Bre­anna Mery; and to fresh­men Madi­son Bayer, Rachael Brown, Ali­son Hager, Mara Hart­ings, Made­line Jenk­ins, Mary Jenk­ins, Erin Lan­ning, Selena McVay and Cas­sidy Willison.

On the boys side, Ahmed and Bar­ber were each pre­sented with their Senior Blan­ket as four-year let­ter­men. Junior Jacob Oppen­heimer earned his third var­sity let­ter. Second-year let­ter win­ners included seniors James Glaze and Colton Shi­daker as well as sopho­mores Noah Miller and Kahrmann. First-year var­sity let­ter win­ners were juniors Hay­den Althauser and Logan Perry along with fresh­men Nathaniel Bell, Bobby Bogantz and Boseker.

JV awards were earned by sopho­mores Aaron Brown and Gra­ham Weaver.

Fif­teen mem­bers of the Big Wal­nut boys and girls squads were rec­og­nized as Big Wal­nut School Ath­letes (Var­sity Let­ter Win­ner, 3.20 Grade Point Aver­age), includ­ing Ahmed, Althauser, Bell, Bethany Bogantz, Bobby Bogantz, Craig-Bowden, Finnegan, Godby, Keller, Oppen­heimer, Perry, Seabrook, Shawver, Vier­tel and Smith.

Ahmed and Finnegan were hon­ored as Ohio Cap­i­tal Con­fer­ence Scholar Ath­letes (Senior, 3.50 GPA).

Posted by Gary Henery on Nov 14 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.