The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Bulldogs’ Clute captures first
Olmsted Falls sophomore Katie Clute has found it difficult to match her own extremely difficult standard, so she just goes about her business of doing what she does best — winning races.
At the mud-plagued district cross country meet Oct. 24 at Lorain County Community College, Clute dominated the field in the Division I, Section 2 race, winning by nearly 20 seconds to help her team qualify to next week’s regional meet at Youngstown Boardman High School.
“It was very muddy, but it wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be,” said Clute, who had the day’s fastest time among the four girls races with a time of 19 minutes, 34.6 seconds. “It was actually pretty fun with the mud, which really is what cross country is about. It made it a little more interesting.”
Clute needs races to be more interesting because she very rarely has running companions. Not only has she never been beaten this season, but most of the time she is all by herself for the vast majority of her races.
It all started two months ago, when she ran an eyeopening time of 17:59.4 to win the Keystone Icebreaker at the Lorain County Equestrian Center. At the time, it was the fastest time in the state and it still ranks among Ohio’s top performances of the season. However, for a variety of reasons, she has yet to better her season-opening time.
“For sure it’s frustrating,” she said. “But I’ve talked to my coach and she tells me that in cross country it’s not about time, because every course is different. It’s more about racing your best and trying to get in front of every person you possibly can. It’s not so much about time. That’s what I’ve been trying to think about and also to just keep working hard.”
Ever since the Keystone meet, veteran Olmsted Falls coach Rae Alexander has been faced with the difficult task of trying to train Clute to be able to run that fast while not obsessing with running fast.
“Katie is constantly comparing,” Alexander said. “After she broke 18 in the first race, we went back there and I said, ‘Take a look at the ground here. It’s like a track. You may never be able to match that time, so you’ve got to focus on racing and positioning.’”
With Clute positioning herself at the front, it was up to the Westlake Demons to pack their runners behind the front-runner in order to repeat their championship performance at last week’s Southwestern Conference meet. With a top five
consisting of four freshmen and a sophomore, Westlake controlled the race, scoring just 47 points to 69 for Olmsted Falls to win its first district title in more than 30 years. Avon placed fourth with 88 points to move on to regionals.
“It’s the first time since, I believe, 1987,” said Westlake coach Travis Haselswerdt. “It’s exciting. I’m just so happy for the girls. All they know is winning. All they know is running together and winning together. To see them do so well this week against some great competition, it’s just an exciting time.”
Freshman Sarah Peer led the way for the Demons, placing second in 19:52.6. Because of the swampy conditions, most runners had times that were about 45 seconds slower than what they were accustomed to running. However, Peer was just 10 seconds slower than what she ran at the SWC meet on the same course.
“She felt good today,” Haselswerdt said. “She woke up saying she felt good and was in a good mood. She saw the course and was excited to see the conditions. A lot of kids would probably get a little intimidated by that, but she was ready to go. From the minute we got on the bus and the minute we got here she was ready.”
Peer was backed by Ellie Irwin in sixth, Stephanie Nivellini in seventh, Sydney Peer in ninth and Ava Kontak in 23rd.
“We weren’t sure how our kids would handle adversity,” Haselswerdt said. “We weren’t sure howthey would handle a muddy course. And also, how they would handle being in a race with a lot of teams, because we just haven’t seen that much this year. The conditions today didn’t phase those girls at all, which was awesome to see.”
Other area girls teams to qualify to the regional meet were Bay, which was fourth in the Division I, Section 1 race, Columbia, which was fourth in the Division III race, and Fairview, which was sixth among the Division II teams.