The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Titans running with full team this season
For the first time in three years, the Lorain Titans have a full team for both the boys and girls cross country teams.
That is significant for a Division I school in Ohio. Lorain has 2,131 students enrolled in the high school.
For the past two years, the team has had only six runners — that is a combination of boys and girls. This year, they have 14 runners, which includes eight boys, and six girls.
To field full teams for the cross country season, Titans head coach Ally Ciulla visited several middle schools, which included Longfellow Middle School, and Southview with the intent of getting more runners on the team.
She was able to get two freshman to join the team, but she worked within her high school to get more runners to get a complete roster.
One of two freshman she was able to get to be on the team, Miguel Wilson, wanted to participate in extracurricular activities early in high school.
“I needed to do something to be involved my freshman year of high school,” Wilson said on why he wanted to join cross country. “When I heard about cross country it seemed like a good fit.”
The other freshman, Christian Ruiz, wanted to join cross country due to one of his biggest role models, who ran all four years during high school.
“My biggest influence was my older brother Carlos Ruiz,” Ruiz said. I knew the coaching staff that is in charge of the team, and if Carlos could get through it with the support of the coaches, I knew I could too.”
Coach Ciulla is starting to see a payoff with her work to double the rosters. For example on Sept. 10, the Lorain girls placed fourth at the Open Door Christian Invitational as junior Breiana Chapman finished 24th overall, with a time of 25:35.
The boys placed 11th on Sept. 10 at the Open Door event, as senior Luis Rodriguez finished 29th overall, with a time of 20:35.
Chapman and Rodriguez are the top two runners for Lorain for this year. The other top runners include senior Mike Bodiford, senior Nate Casner, and junior Alicia Walker.
Rodriguez was on the team during his sophomore year, but he didn’t run last year.
He was a part of the Lorain teams who did not have a full team up until this year.
“Great,” said Rodriguez about the fact he’s competing on a full team. “Yeah, it’s much better.”
Junior Kameron Jones joined the team this year as a newcomer.
He wanted to prove to himself he could become a distance runner, having never participated in the sport.
“I wanted to join cross country because I know it will make me a better runner and build my endurance,” Jones said. “Also to prove to my self that I can do all things I put my mind, body, and soul too.”
The Titans have three seniors on the team, all on the boys side, which means the team is young.
Filling out the rest of the roster are Devin Osborne (Jr.), Damien Contreras (So.), Christian Ruiz (Fr.), Miguel Wilson (Fr.).
On the girls side, the roster includes Ty’lea Bryant (Jr.), Gabby McNeal (So.), Paris McNeal (So.) and Emilia Yancey (So.).
With a full team intact, Ciulla is excited for the team to be able to place in meets. She is also looking forward to continue working on team chemistry throughout the season.
For example, during an August practice, the team completed a run to get ice cream.
The goal was to get the team to jell as a group.
With the season well underway for Lorain, they still have hopes to accomplish something they haven’t done in a couple of years: To compete and place in postseason meets.
With a full team this year, they have a chance to make that a reality.