The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Chardon girls, Kenston boys dominate WRC
Kenston’s boys cross country team began its postseason at the Western Reserve Conference championship meet Oct. 13.
The Bombers have lofty goals for the next three weeks. Kenston embarks on its quest to achieve a third straight Division I state team berth. First, Jakob McConnell and Kyle Silk wanted to extend their team’s dominance that’s become an annual rite in the fall for the Bombers.
Kenston joined the WRC four seasons ago. The Bombers, on their home course, claimed their fourth straight WRC championship Oct. 13.
McConnell won the individual championship in 16 minutes, seven seconds. Juniors Kyle Silk (17:02), Casey Pleune (17:05), David Rosinski (17:20) and Jordan Knapp (17:35) all placed among the top eight as the Bombers; 24 points put them well ahead of runner-up Riverside’s 62.
“We’re definitely something special right now,” McConnell said. “We really got it together this week on our home course, we had lots of high energy and just knew we had to go out there and race for each other.”
Silk, Pleune and Rosinski placed fourth through sixth. Knapp rounded out the pack in eighth.
Silk and McConnell are the lone seniors among Coach Chris Ickes’ top seven runners. Each is focused on maximizing the opportunity presented by his final high school cross country season.
Silk sees his younger teammates following suit.
“I’d say this is one of the better weeks we’ve had as a team coming into a race,” Silk said, “just our mindset going into this race and the postseason in general.”
Riverside senior A.J. Haffa (16:17) placed second in the boys race to lead the Beavers to a second-place team standing. Sophomore Zeb Zuber (17:30) returned from injury to finish seventh as Riverside’s No. 2 runner.
Madison senior and state hopeful Owen Hennessey (16:50) finished third.
Chardon’s Denali Selent and Andi Mann placed first and second, respectively, as the Hilltoppers’ girls team won another WRC title with 24 points. Selent, a senior, won the girls race in 19 minutes, 30 seconds. Chardon won the WRC championship in each of her four years on the team.
“It feels so awesome,” Selent said. “As a team, we’ve been working so hard this whole season. This was a big goal of ours to come and dominate this meet.”
Mann (19:31) was followed by fellow sophomores Bri Nieset (19:48) in fourth and Lilli Livengood (20:17) in eighth. Molly Greene (20:28) completed the Hilltoppers scoring five in ninth.
Mann and Nieset are in the midst of breakout seasons. The runners have accompanied Selent, a two-time state qualifier, at the front of many races this season and their development makes Chardon a candidate to advance to the D-I state meet.
“They’ve both grown so much since I met them,” Selent said. “They’re really awesome people, awesome runners and it’s really fun to be able to work with them.”
Kathryn Taylor (19:52) finished fifth and Ellie Pleune (19:56) placed sixth as Kenston was the girls team runner-up with 56 points. Mayfield’s Nicole DiCicco (19:35) took third and Val Sague (20:04) was seventh for the Wildcats, whose 74 points placed them third.