The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Dynamic duos dominate at SWC preview
Comets’ Bowlsby wins boys, Bulldogs’ Clute takes girls race
It was a pair of dynamic duos who controlled the individual races at the Southwestern Conference Cross Country Preview at Lorain County Community College on August 28.
Sophomore sensations Luke Bowlsby and Ty Perez led Amherst with a one-two finish on the boys side and in the girls race, junior Katie Clute and senior Lillie Katsaras of Olmsted Falls finished one-two.
Bowlsby ran a 16:43.81 and Perez finished just behind him at 16:55.06. The third place finisher was Avon Lake’s Matt Henry, finishing in 17:34.95.
“I felt really tired,” Bowlsby said. “We had four-mile repeats on Monday and seven mile workout on Thursday so I think the whole team’s leg were pretty dead, but we both ran amazing today and I think we can be happy about that.”
“Every hard week my legs are tired but that’s no excuse,” Perez said. “You come into the race and you are ready to go and give it everything you got. That’s what I did today.”
Amherst won the boys title and is the team to beat in the conference. The Comets are letting their running speak for itself.
“There was a team in an article in the newspaper that said they were going to win the conference and get top three in the district and that really motivated us this week,” Bowlsby said.
Perez added “we use everything as motivation. You want to fuel our fire, go ahead.”
Even though Bowlsby and Perez went one-two, they aren’t focused on these races in particular. It all culminates at the end.
“We use these races as learning,” Perez said. “You make mistakes and you fix it the next race. Then you make more mistakes and you fix it the next race. Just keep getting better and better.”
Rounding out the top five in the boy’s race was Avon Lake’s Adam Dixon with a time of 18:16.67 and Midview’s Lucas Edgell with a time of 18:23.25.
Amherst won the team title with 42 team points and Avon Lake finished second with 68 points.
On the girl’s side, the Bulldogs one-two punch controlled the race, with Clute beating the field by almost a full minute and winning with a time of 19:32.55. Katsaras finished second with a time of 20:27.47.
“I ran pretty conservative in the first mile,” Clute said. “On the next two, worked on staying under control and trying to get more even splits. It’s not that great if I have a 30 second difference from the first and second mile.”
“I took the first mile out slower like Katie,” Katsaras said. “What I usually do in races is go out slower to begin with and then fight my way to the front so this wasn’t really much different. The first mile was slower but it felt more controlled. Even though I was in like fifth or sixth place at the mile
I knew I had more energy to make it up.”
Clute and Katsaras are training partners and motivate each other every day to get better.
“It makes us both so much better to have someone in practice to work with and push with,” Clute said. “It helps to have someone and we both have big goals so it helps to have someone to push with and make both of us better.”
Katsaras added “for the most part, we do the same exact workouts and feel the same afterwards so it’s good to have someone to talk too about that.”
Similar to Perez and Bowlsby, Clute and Katsaras have bigger goals in mind.
“We are just going to keep working really hard in training because in the grand scheme of things, these races don’t matter as much,” Clute said. “It’s the end of the year that matters the most so these are the races we get better and learn new things and learn to race better and push ourselves. But it is the end of the season where the races matter most.”
“Right now, we are just breaking down our running and working on little bits and parts at a time and at the end of the season it will come together and work out for the best,” Katsaras said. “We are confident in that.”
Avon finished third and fourth, with Anika Singh and Maddie Harrington finishing in 20:50.53 and 20:50.59, respectively. Midview’s Audrey Sanzone finished in 21:25.63.
Avon won the girls race with 39 points and Amherst finished in second place with 68 points.