The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Dennison, Kearns earn titles, Hawken wins D-II team crown
It was a tall order for Mentor’s Billy Dennison and Michael Petrovic to try to keep Solon’s James Howell at bay in the Division I district meet at Madison. But the duo was able to do just that as they finished 1-2 for the Cardinals.
Dennison held the lead from the beginning of the meet and had his sights set on the individual title. The sophomore posted a 15:53.98 to take the top spot.
The challenge then fell to Petrovic to finish the job in a back-and-forth battle with Howell. As they entered the final stretch, Howell was ahead but Petrovic proved to have the better kick as he surged ahead to take second with a 16:15.20.
“It makes it easier on both of us knowing that there’s two of us and one of him,” Dennison said. “I wanted to go out early knowing that he has a great kick. Michael was able to stay with him the rest of the way.”
Petrovic added: “We were able to all stay together and Billy pulled away in the second mile. But James and I were never able to shake each other for that second place. He would take it, I would come back, but he made a move on the back stretch where I thought he had me. But I saw he wasn’t pumping as hard down the stretch and was able to surge and get ahead”
The two helped propel Mentor to a thirdplace team finish with 107 points, as the Cardinals advanced to their 50th consecutive regional meet. Solon took home the team title with 49 points, followed by Chardon with 93.
In the D-II race, it was again a showdown between West Geauga’s Daniel Kearns and Hawken’s Nick Garcia Whitko. While Whitko narrowed the gap between the two from CVC’s a week ago, Kearns still came out on top with a 15:48.29.
“I knew the competition was going to be a lot steeper here,” Kearns said. “I wanted to lead off so I didn’t have to climb back up and that worked really well. It serves as great preparation because you’re going to see the other best teams there that you have to beat to make it to states.”
However, unlike a week ago, it was Hawken who had the last laugh in the team race as it beat West Geauga, 51-66. The Hawks saw their second through fifth runners beat the Wolverines to claim the team title.
Coach Kim Curtis reflected on a quiet week of practice that saw the Hawks focus on improving and knowing where they needed to be if they wanted to bring some hardware home.
“It is an amazing feeling but when you come within one point of winning, you tend to step back and look at what you could’ve done differently,” Curtis said. “It’s not about talent or skill but racing strategy. Today they came with a mission and executed it really well. What they did was analyze their finish and who they had to be in front of and everyone took that ownership and knew what they had to finish and
the positioning.”
Both Kenston and NDCL saw a pair of runners finish in the top 15 as they finished third and fifth respectively to also claim team advancements.
In the D-III meet, Wickliffe’s Brady Pugh was able to focus on his goal of maintaining a spot in the top 20 of the first two miles and be there fighting for an advancement spot at the last 1.1.
The Blue Devils senior crossed the line in 14th with a 17:50.73 to finally check off being a regional qualifier from his checklist.
“It means a lot because of the hard work and I’ve become the runner that I want to be,” Pugh said. “Last year was a lot stiffer of competition. But this year I was able to ease in and run my own race at a course I love. It was drive and dedication along with all the Wickliffe support along the way was a big assist. It helped me get into that second gear.”
While it was triumph for Pugh, the Blue Devils fell one team spot short of advancing as Pymatuning Valley outscored them 131-183. Cardinal freshman Samuel Gdovichin was also a few positions short of advancing as he came home in 19th with an 18:11.94.