The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Confidence-boosting win for Brookside
Hawken Ella Gilson continues improving as a sophomore, and it showed during her victory in the Mentor Cardinal Classic cross country meet.
Hawken’s Ella Gilson enters her sophomore season with clearly defined goals.
Gilson, a top-flight swimmer for the Hawks in the winter, ran her first cross country race after she joined the team three weeks into her freshman year. She proceeded to set Hawken’s school record in 18:14, finished the season 15th at the Division II state meet and led the Hawks to a fifth-place team finish.
At the outset of her second cross country season, Gilson plans to break her own record and place higher on the state podium. So far, she’s 2-for-2. After Gilson won the Hawken Invitational on Aug. 25, she comfortably took first place amid a strong D-I field at the Mentor Cardinal Classic on Sept. 1 in 18:26. She delivered a time 12 seconds off her personal best on a steamy, humid morning after a stringent week of training.
“I’m just happy because this was a really hard week of training for us, and I also went back to my swim practices and stuff,” Gilson said. “I’m happy it went well — that was a good race.”
Fellow sophomore Juliana Metz (19:21) placed ninth and Julia Newman (20:06) was 17th as the Hawks finished eighth in the team standings.
Mentor’s top five runners placed among top 22 finishers to land the Cardinals a second-place team finish at Garfield Park. Senior Anna Evans (19:49) led the pack in 13th, followed by classmate Maddie Hull (19:52) in 14th and junior Diona Ramos (20:18) in 19th. Sophomores Kate Szep (20:34 and Rylee Yocum (20:36) rounded out Mentor’s top five in 21st and 22nd, respectively.
“The girls were awesome today,” Mentor coach Bill Dennison said. “We’re working on the depth at the sixth, seventh runner. We’ve got a freshman in the mix now but top five, Anna and Maddie, they’ve paid their dues. I think you’re going to see a rotation between Diona, Maddie and Anna as far as that No. 1 spot goes.”
Gilmour senior Katie Engle (19:38) placed 12th to lead the Lancers to a third-place team result. Mayfield’s Val Sague (19:27) placed 10th.
Gilmour’s Tyler Clark (16:47) led area runners in the boys race with a fifthplace finish. Tim Diemer (16:57) placed eighth and Connor Gerspacher (17:11) was 11th to slot the Lancers in second place. St. Ignatius placed runners first, second and third to win the team title by 80 points.
Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin’s Cal Yackin (16:53) followed a strong race at the Berkshire Early Bird Invitational on Aug. 25 with a seventh-place finish in Mentor. Geneva senior Forrest Long (17:05) placed fifth as the Eagles were fifth in the team standings. Mentor’s boys team, missing an ill Nick Kozlowski, placed third.
Cole Durdella (18:06) finished 40th and Bryson Simpson (18:09) took 42nd to round Gilmour’s top five. The Lancers placed ninth at the 2017 D-III state meet. They viewed competition with teams like St. Ignatius, Medina, Mentor and other D-I programs as their first significant litmus test this year.
“This was our first big test of the year because there’s a lot of good D-I schools like that,” Diemer said. “There were a lot of different teams on our mind that we were thinking about, but we know who we are. It was a big test. I think we performed very well.”
Area roundup
Kenston’s boys team and Chardon’s girls teams took team titles at the Kenston Frank Gibas Invitational on Sept. 1.
Jakob McConnell (16:07) finished second in the boys race to lead the Bombers’ first-place effort on their home course. Kyle Silk (17:04) placed 10th, David Rosinski (17:13) was 13th, Casey Pleune (17:23) 15th and Jack Turk (17:39) 24th to round out Kenston’s scoring five.
University’s Justin Iler defended his individual title at Kenston with a firstplace finish in 16:01. The Preppers finished fourth in the team standings. Riverside’s A.J. Haffa (16:46) took sixth and Lake Catholic’s Alex Hansel (16:59) was ninth to round out area runners in the top 10.
The Hilltoppers placed three runners in the top ten to earn the girls team title. Senior Denali Selent (19:38) finished third and sophomores Brianna Nieset (20:02) and Andrea Mann (20:15) were eighth and ninth, respectively.
Beaumont’s Mia Mlynek (19:17) won the girls race. Ashley Rulison (19:45) was fifth and Addison Ciecierski (20:20) finished 10th as the Blue Streaks were third in the team standings.
Kenston placed fourth behind Kathryn Taylor (20:22.1) in 12th and Ellie Pleune (20:22.4) in 13th.
• Benedictine’s Anthony Sweet (18:08) finished sixth and William March (18:11) took seventh to lead the Bengals to a fourth-place team finish in the Gold Division race at the Avon Lake Earlybird Invitational.