High school cross country: Mentor’s Bull, Lake Catholic’s Keating poised for dominant senior seasons

This article was originally posted on the News-Herald’s website on 8.29.16. Written by Nate Barnes.

Matthew Bull crossed the finish line in 18th place at last year’s state meet with a personal-best time of 15:42. His then-teammate at Lake Catholic, Jacob Keating followed two seconds later with his own PR of 15:44.

Chagrin Falls’ Joe Bistritz is gone to North Carolina State, taking his two state titles and 15:09 PR with him to Raleigh. That means after four years of dominance, other runners besides the former Chagrin Falls star will actually have a chance to win at meets featuring area teams.

After top-20 finishes at Hebron in 2015, Bull — now at Mentor — and Keating are poised to battle for area dominance.

Lake Catholic coach Barb Seitz and her Mentor counterpart Bill Dennison have watched the two prepare during offseason workouts — which began in June — to prepare for senior seasons they hope will end up with top finishes at the state meet Nov. 5.

“(Keating)’s one of the hardest-working kids, and it’s not just in cross country,” Seitz said. “It’s everything that he does, he excels and he wants to do the best he can possibly do.”

Said Dennison of Bull: “Hard-worker. Determined to be the best, I would say sums him up, and he’s been the ultimate team player at the same time.”

The two have developed a natural rivalry over the years running in practice and finishing near one another at meets. But it’s a friendly one.

“It’s all on good terms,” Keating said. “You race against certain people, so you want to beat them the next time if you don’t beat them and so forth.”

Bull and Keating’s respective teams count on them for leadership this season as the Cardinals and Cougars both expect to enjoy team success as well. Bull replaces Mentor’s top runner in Joe Polakowski, giving the Cardinals a solid core.

Lake Catholic is strong at the top with Keating backed up by Matt Kirchner and Colin Waddle. As the Cougars look to build depth, they’re confident in Keating to blaze the path, who Seitz says is everything a coach would want out of a senior leader. “He encourages,” Seitz said. “He tries to get the best out of everyone and that’s what a leader does, they actually serve and try to get the best out of the people they’re leading and he does.”

As far as leading by example goes, Lake Catholic assistant Matt Borcas says he has to make sure Keating doesn’t overwork himself. But the caliber of Keating’s work ethic is what sets him apart from many runners.

“I think he embraces the challenge and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to reach his goals,” Borcas said. “I think that’s what really makes him special.”

Bull transferred to Mentor, his home school district, during the winter and ran for Dennison on the boys 4×800 relay in the spring. He anchored a unit that placed third at the D-I state meet in Columbus with an area record time of 7:44.59, and the focus turned to making him as successful in cross country months ago.

The senior’s season is one three years in the making for Dennison, who hoped to sway Bull to the high school when was in eighth grade. “You’re a runner,” Dennison told Bull at the time, whose sights were then set on playing hockey and soccer at Lake Catholic. Dennison’s words proved prescient.

“The irony is he goes to Lake Catholic, becomes a runner, then comes back and runs for me anyway,” Dennison said. “We did amazing things with him in the spring. Now we’re working on that cross country perspective for him.”

Bull says the size of Mentor is what’s been most different for him coming from Lake Catholic. This season, the Cardinals boys roster alone numbers into the 40s while the Cougars have 21 runners between both teams.

Beside the team success, Bull and Keating each identify their goals this season as times that will put them in contention for a state crown. Keating hopes to break the Lake Catholic school record of 15:28, set in 1998 and considered untouchable by Borcas when he ran at the school five years ago, and Bull also wants to run below 15:30 by season’s end.

“I set a goal this year and I want to be top 10 in the state at least,” Bull said. “Just a lot of hard work needs to be put in and self-discipline.”

Said Keating: “My goal is just to place higher in state than I did last year. I just want to have an improvement over last season. Go out as high as I can.”