Brookside, Bay girls reign at Vermilion

The 11th annual Obenour Invitational (formerly known as the Vermilion Invitational) brought schools from Lorain and Cuyahoga counties to Vermilion High School on Sept. 28 for a great midseason test.

The top five finishers in the girls race were area runners, including two Olmsted Falls runners who posted personal bests in Katie Klute and Lillie Katsaras.

Klute with a time of 19:33 and Katsaras at 19:45 finished as the top two runners, while Olivia Bird of Bay, Audrey Sanzone from Midview and Alicia Fike of Brookside rounded out the top five.

“I think the competition was better this year than it was last year,” Sanzone said. “But I feel like my conditioning was better this year, and that made a difference.”

Sanzone finished sixth overall in 2018 and jumped two spots into fourth place this season, helping secure a top-four finish for the Middies in the Division I team standings.

Despite having the top two finishers, the Bulldogs were unable to sneak past Bay, which topped the D-I standings with 36 points to Olmsted Falls’ 62. Led by Fike, Brookside ousted Vermilion in the D-II standings, taking home the championship with 22 points.

In the boys’ race, top honors went to Kyle Kromer of Norwalk with a time of 16:26, ahead of his next-closest competitor in Bay’s Will Warren at 16:46. Host Vermilion’s Luke See was third in 16:53, finishing seconds ahead of Midview’s Robert Callaway, who clocked in at 16:59.

See came into the day looking for redemption after

dropping from a sixthplace finish his freshman year to a 34th-place showing in 2018.

“Last year I did really terrible,” See said. “So I just wanted to get better, run with the fast kids and hopefully make a statement. I wish I ran a little bit faster today, but there’s always next week.”

The strong performance from See was enough to help the Sailors lock down a top three finish in the D-II standings, eight points behind Bay, which finished in second with 51 total points.

Callaway also finished in fourth place last season. But after beating his 2018 time by nearly 10 seconds, he feels as if he’s ahead of where he was at last season and is ready to find his stride as the season progresses.

“I’m definitely ahead of where I was last year, but I’m not quite where I want to be for this season,” Callaway said. “But coming up on conference and districts that’s where I really want to find my peak.”

The senior was the highest finisher for the Middies, who finished seventh in the D-I standings, while Norwalk and North Ridgeville sat in first and second place.