Mentor boys, Chardon girls win district

Chardon’s Nate Kawalec didn’t run on the Madison District course for the first time on Oct. 21.

At Madison’s U Wanna Come Back Invitational on Sept. 30, Kawalec ran, although he treated the race as a structured workout. Still, he won by more than 30 seconds with a time of 15:49.

Three weeks later, Kawalec held nothing back.

At the district meet, the Hilltoppers senior ran a season-best 15:23 to roast the Division I Madison District field by a full minute.

“I was pushing the whole way,” Kawalec said. “With the woods and the rocks, it’s not fully packed down. It’s a fast course, though.”

Kawalec led Chardon’s boys team to a second-place team finish. He’s assumed the mantle vacated by Mentor’s Matt Bull and Lake Catholic’s Jacob Keating, the area’s top boys runners from a year ago. Kawalec was often the only runner within striking distance of Keating and Bull last season.

This year, Kawalec’s won every race he’s run except for a sixth-place finish among a 203-runner field at Centerville’s Saturday Night Lights race on Sept. 23. There, his time of 15:32 was 16 seconds behind the winning mark of Thomas Worthington’s Arjun Jha — a blistering 15:16.

Otherwise, Kawalec’s been alone in front for much of the season.

“It feels good knowing you’re the kind of guy people key off of,” Kawalec said.

Kawalec placed 15th at Boardman last season before his 22nd-place effort at the state meet. As he eyes a place on the state podium, Chardon’s No. 1 runner looks to notch another victory Oct. 28.

“I’m looking for the win,” Kawalec said. “I’ve got good competition out there, but it should be a good race.”

Riverside’s A.J. Haffa

(16:23.78) placed second and Mayfield’s Ben Browngardt (16:23.85) finished third. Browngardt secured his second straight trip to the regional meet at Boardman.

Browngardt placed 91st at the regional meet in 2016 and learned a valuable lesson he hopes will help him this season.

“You’ve got to go out hard,” Browngardt said. “There’s so many people that you’ll get swamped at the beginning if you don’t go out hard.”

Mentor junior Nate Warner (16:39) and sophomore Nick Kozlowski (16:49) notched fourth and fifth to lead the Cardinals to a district title. Tommy Oddo (17:04) and James Ferro (17:06) placed ninth and 10th, and Michael Ferro (17:16) was 18th to round out Mentor’s top five.

Warner and the Cardinals knew Kawalec would pull ahead and take the first point off the board. But Mentor adhered to its “pack and attack” strategy to claim a district crown.

Warner’s effort was crucial to the Cardinals’ team score. Kozlowski, Mentor’s lead runner, became ill before the Greater Cleveland Conference meet last week and was still slowed at Madison.

“I was just trying to be there for him,” Warner said. “I had no clue he was sick but I was kind of figuring it out when we were in the back stretch of the woods. I just kind of said ‘It’s either I go now or we’re just not going to do as well.’ ”

Mayfield placed third, Geneva was fourth and Madison finished fifth in the team standings to qualify for Boardman alongside Mentor and Chardon. Among individuals, South’s Justin Mesterhazy and Ethan Knott and Harvey’s David Boykin and JT Basco qualified with Haffa.

On the girls side, Chardon’s Denali Selent (19:07) won the D-I girls race to lead the Hilltoppers to a district title. Thea Sauer (20:34) placed seventh, Maria Peters (20:37)

was ninth, Mila Stropkay (20:41) finished 11th and Molly Greene (21:18) was 18th for a team score of 46 — 25 points ahead of runner-up Mentor.

Coach Julie Cole said Chardon was missing one of its top runners, and another dealt with a nagging injury, but the Hilltoppers found a way to win a district title.

“We’ve kind of adopted a next-man-up attitude for the season,” Cole said. “To their credit, they didn’t fold up the tent. Let’s give it a go, and see what happens.”

Behind Selent, Mayfield’s Val Sague (19:46) and Morgan Tropf (20:02) placed second and third. Brush’s Eve Horrigan (20:22) placed fifth to earn an individual regional qualification. South’s Hannah Stapp (21:07) placed 16th to secure a trip to Boardman.

Mayfield placed third, Riverside was fourth and Geneva finished fifth to earn team bids to Boardman.