Team chemistry sparks Lancers

Gilmour registered the area’s best team performance at the 2017 state cross country meet.

The Division III Lancers capped last fall with a ninth-place result in the team standings.

Coach Matt Lindley returned all five of the runners who scored for Gilmour in Hebron last year. The Lancers, loaded with runners who own multiple years of state experience, opened the season ranked No. 3 in the Ohio Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches D-III preseason poll.

Senior Tim Diemer has ran at National Trail Raceway each fall since he was a freshman. Classmates Tyler Clark and Connor Gerspacher have been to Hebron twice. Juniors Cole Durdella and Bryson Simpson were the Lancers’ No. 4 and 5 runners at last year’s state meet.

Extensive state experience isn’t exclusive to Gilmour.

Rather, the Lancers tout bonds that separate them from their competition.

Diemer says the Lancers run for each other.

“If you ever look at a finish line at the end of a race, you’ll see teammates coming by, giving each other high-fives like, ‘good job.’ and stuff,” Diemer said. “If you ever watch all of us, every single time someone finishes everyone gets a hug, you’ll probably hear a couple ‘I love you’s,’ ‘good job’ in there.”

Off the course, the Lancers are a tight-knit group.

Most of the team eats lunch together at school every day. Outside Gilmour’s Gates Mills campus, the Lancers have gone on several camping trips. Countless inside jokes have spawned in the many hours spent together during training sessions, Saturday morning meets and road trips to postseason races.

Recently, after the Lancers notched a second-place team finish amid a competitive field of mainly D-I teams at the Mentor Cardinal Classic on Sept. 1, Gilmour’s runners headed to an area fair later in the afternoon.

Connections forged outside the Lancers’ running schedule assists Gilmour’s team score on Saturdays.

“We know who we have to stick with, our four and five guys know they have to stick together,” Gerspacher said. “They work toward me, I work to stick with Tim and so on, so forth. We know who we have to be with and being closer and discussing this as a team really helps us prepare to do that.”

After two weeks, Gilmour remains ranked No. 7 in the OATCCC poll. The Lancers aim to finish among the state’s top teams this November.

“We definitely want to get back,” Clark said. “We want to win the region and hopefully at the state meet, we know there’s some good DIII teams out there. We know who we can match up against and we know we’ve just got to put in the work this season. I think we can get there.”

Added motivation for a group with nine combined state berths lies within the knowledge Diemer, Clark and Gerspacher will complete their final high school cross country seasons later this fall.

“We all understand this is a really special team,” Diemer said. “This is the year we have to do it.”