The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Panthers capture team title
In the week leading up to the district meet Oct. 24 at Lorain County Community College, there was lots of rain — including a torrential downpour about 12 hours before the first race was to start — causing the course to be nothing short of a sloppy, soupy mess.
Asked to describe the conditions, Bay boys coach Steve Babson said, “It’s typical October weather here at Lorain. It seems like every other year it’s a swamp. Most years it’s a little chilly and windy.”
Avon’s Jett Wieber had a slightly different view. He, like everyone else, was caked with mud after crossing the finish line. The senior placed third in the Division I, Section 1 race, which qualified him to continue his season.
“It was some of the worst conditions I’ve ever run in,” he said. “Lots of mud, lots of wet ground. Although it slows down times, I think it adds to the feeling of competition. You wouldn’t get an experience like this in track or on the road. I think that’s a unique part of cross country. You kind of forget about time onaday like this. You just try to run the best race you can and just place well. I had a lot of fun.”
Of course, fun is a relative term. Other area boys teams who had fun were
Elyria Catholic, Bay, Amherst, Fairview, Avon Lake and Keystone, all of which qualified for next week’s regional meet at Youngstown Boardman High School.
The lone area district champion among the boys was Elyria Catholic, which rode the runner-up finish of Matt Krese to score 71 points, 10 better than Division III runner-up Dalton. Krese was timed in 17 minutes, 20.8 seconds in the first of eight races on the day.
“(Matt) had a real strong race,” EC coach Matthew Barber said. “The times don’t show it because it’s so slow out there. This is a slow course in good conditions. Today, everything is off. We threw times out the window. I challenged the guys all week long to meet their place goals. For the most part they answered that.”
Krese was backed by Colin Garrity in 12th place, followed by Matt Boehm (16th), Kevin Theile (18th) and Ethan Zientarski (23rd). Barber said a key to the victory was Theile making a big move in the final mile of the 5,000-meter race, a move that allowed him to pass several people.
“We knew we were capable of winning it,” Barber said. “Wewanted to put our best effort into reaching that goal. Sometimes somebody else has a better day than you. You can have the best day that you can have, and somebody is just a little bit better. We were willing to accept that if it happened, but we wanted to make sure at least on our end of it that we were putting our best effort out there. It seemed to work for us today.”
Another solid effort was put forth by the Rockets from Bay, which finished second to Peninsula Woodridge, which has been the top-ranked Division II team in the state the entire season. Bay is ranked fourth in the state, and it showed on this day, as the Rockets finished with 52 points, just 10 behind the defending state champions. Fairview (third) and Keystone (fifth) also qualified to next week’s regional meet.
Bay actually was slightly ahead after the teams’ third runners had finished, and Woodridge held just a one-point advantage after four runners. The difference came when the Bulldogs’ last three runners all finished in front of Bay’s fifth. Scoring for the Rockets were Jude Ault (third), Will Warren (fourth), Ezra Fleeman (ninth), Michael Muccio (15th) and Luke Hansen (21st).
“If you’re a top team, you always have to assess yourself against Woodridge,” Babson said. “They’ve been the gold standard for the whole 15 years I’ve been coaching. They always have the depth. That’s why they win every year. They have the fourth and fifth, and if one of them is off, their sixth and seventh guy is usually just a few seconds behind. But we ran extremely well. I’m very happy.”
The area produced one individual champion among the boys, Amherst freshman Ty Perez, who continued his remarkable season with his ninth victory in 10 races. With Perez leading the way, the Comets placed second in the Division I, Section 2 race, just nine points behind Medina. Highland was third, and Avon Lake grabbed the final qualifying spot in fourth.
“I never imagined this,” Perez said. “I wasn’t even sure if I would win SWCs. But I just kept working hard, and as the possibility became bigger and I realized I can do this, it just made me go even harder.”
Amherst coach Rob Glatz didn’t see this kind of early success coming, either.
“I didn’t see it unfolding like this,” he said. “Obviously, I was pleasantly surprised to see it start to develop in this manner, to see his competitive spirit match up with his training. Once we were at mid-season, I knew that this was going to be something very, very special. I can’t wait to see what he does next week with the competition at regionals.”