Cross country roundup: Mentor cross country teams sweep Cardinal Classic titles

The following article was posted on the News-Herald’s website. Congratulations Mentor!

Mentor cross country coach Bill Dennison is like most when talking about the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“I think everyone’s had enough of 2020,” said Dennison. “It was a good day. We needed this today.”

“This” as in the running of the 48th Cardinal Classic Cross Country Invitational at Garfield Park in Mentor on Sept. 5.

While a number of large cross country events throughout the state have been canceled and replaced with smaller-type events, the Cardinal Classic was a go — with the blessing of Mentor High School decision makers — and Dennison was thankful.

“I have to give our athletic director Jeff Cassella and our superintendent a lot of credit,” said Dennison. “They had a lot of faith in us to put on a nice event, and I think we delivered.”

So did Dennison’s Mentor teams. For the first time in the history of the event, the Cardinals swept the boys and girls team titles.

The Mentor girls’ 49 bested Medina (70), while the boys team (38) also ran away from Medina (61) for the team title.

The Cardinals’ girls team had nine top-50 finishers, including runner-up Savannah Dennison, who posted a time of 19 minutes, 6 seconds.

Riverside’s Cheyenne Durda was first with an impressive run in 18:56.

Mentor also had two more top 10 finishers in Annie Berrow (fifth, 19:36) and Kate Szep (seventh, 19:49).