The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Area runners excel at Early Bird Invitational
The annual Early bird Invitational at Avon Lake always posts some great times and scores and the Sept. 4 race was no different.
In the crowded Maroon race, St Edward took the title with 35 team points and senior Thomas Hoffman finished in first place with a time of 16:38.0.
Keystone’s Stephen Faltay finished in third place with a time of 17:04.9.
Westlake finished second in the team race with 75 points, led by KJ Mueller who finished fifth with a time of 17:32.5.
“We chose to be in the Division I race hoping to have some more competition and we got that,” Faltay said. “I have never run that tie at this course before.
“My legs were pretty heavy because we had a harder week this week at practice and this is a course that can wear out your legs with the tall grass and the hill,” Faltay said.
Faltay added “we need to have that competition or we will never improve.”
In the Maroon Division girls race, Stephanie Nivellini finished in second place with a time of 19:18.0, pacing the Westlake Demons to a third place finish with team points.
“My hip felt this really sharp pain and did some stride puts and started to feel better,” Nivellini said. “I wanted to start out slower and not too fast. I think at the mile mark I was at sixth and still trying got relax my face while I ran. Once I got to the two-mile I really picked it up and started attacking the hills. Overall it was a really good race.”
Nivellini added “I wasn’t sure what my team was going to be but it ended up being a (Personal record).”
Westlake’s Ellie Irwin finished in fifth place and Christina Ware finished in 16th place. All three runners are sophomores.
“I was really proud of our team,” Nivellini said.
In the Gold division boys’ race, Fairview junior Ben Myers took the title, winning the race with a time of 17:19. Fairview finished third as a team with 82 points.
“I made my move on the hill, that was everything for me,” Myers said. “I went up the hill as fast as I could and sprinted down the hill and got room on that. I didn’t feel bad but once I got up in the top three area, I knew what had to be done.”
Myers added “I am so happy with how we did.”
Fairview sophomore Tyson Crandall finished in third place with a time of 17:42.7.
For Fairview, this race was a great benchmark race for them.
“Every day, every practice and every race is just getting us towards the end of the season,” Myers said. “Just trying to do our best and hopefully lead into the state meet as a team.”
In the gold division girls’ race, Madeleine Finton of Columbia continued her blazing start to the season, finishing in first place with a time of 19:44.9.
“It’s the fastest I have ran on this course so I will take that,” Finton said.
Finton lead the entire race and never showed signs of letting up.
“I wanted to make it more of a pace race so I had to be out there,” Finton said.
Finton added “I feel really good. It has been really hot recently so the times should get better once it gets a little colder and we will have more competition which is nice.”
Finton so far this season has won the Keystone Icebreaker and finished second at the Seneca East Invitational.