Westlake races strong at Bruce Lerch

Sarah Peer wins girls race for Westlake

The Westlake boys’ and girls’ cross country teams are off to a fast start this season and the Bruce Lerch invite at Brecksville — Broadview Heights high school was no expectation.

Both Westlake teams finished second in the solid field, the boys falling to Twinsburg and the girls falling to Brecksville.

Westlake’s Sarah Peer led the way, winning the girls race by 53 seconds with a time of 19:06.6. The sophomore is off to a great start this season and didn’t hold back Saturday.

“Lately in all four practices we have been training in hill work because Westlake is flat so we have been adding some hill work in lately,” Peer said. “Last week I was gone and got some hill work in there. The main component is just the strength. We do a lot of strength training.”

Peer added “especially with this race and these hills it was the mental aspect of just continuing to stay focused.”

“This is a true cross country course,” Westlake coach Travis Haselswerdt. “You got the hills, you got the trails, you got the woods. We don’t come here to worry about times, we really treat it as fantastic workout.”

Haselswerdt added “we talked it down all week long so that we came in with no expectations.”

Sophomore Ellie Irwin finished fourth with a time of 20:28.3 and sophomore Christina Ware finished in tenth place with a time of 21:55.7. Last weeks top runner Stephanie Nivellini rested on Saturday for the Demons.

“The thing we have always told our girls is our job is to get you too October,” Haselswerdt said. “Physically, mentally and emotional. If that means resting or taking a week off, which none of these girls want to do because they are competitors, we have to look at the big picture.”

“Like the Great Lakes Conference preview meet, we came into this with no expectations,” Peer said. “Just to have fun and run. We take it easy and I think that’s what sets us apart from other teams.”

Peer emphasized the Demons need to stay positive and kept the energy loose and fun.

“Preparing yourself in a positive way,” Peer said about important things.

“We are taking it easy because we have such good runners if we get too serious then we train too much and we drain ourselves out,”

Peer said. “We have been taking it back a little.”

Peer added “we try to win very meet of course but do it in a healthy and positive way.

The Demons boys finished in second as well, with senior K.J. Mueller leading the team and finishing seventh with a time of 18:07.9. Tyler Schmitz finished eleventh with a time of 18:24.1.

Twinsburg’s Aidan Cain with the boy’s race with a time of 16:55.0 and Twinsburg won the team race with 60 points. On the girl’s side, Brecksville won the team race with 42 points.