High School Cross Country: Mentor Wins Eighth Consecutive District Championship

This article was originally posted on the News Herald’s website on 10.24.15. Written by Alex Hooper.

At some point in every dynasty, either complacency or a dip in talent set in, but 2015 was not the year for that to happen for the Mentor boys cross country team.

The Cardinals used senior Joe Polakowski’s individual win to help net their eighth straight Division I district championship.

A four-man pack emerged with Polakowski (16:23), Shaker Heights senior Justin Moore and Lake Catholic juniors Matt Bull and Jacob Keating, but the Mentor senior separated himself in the final mile.

“Knowing how windy it was going to be, I decided to just wait and let the race develop in front of me,” Polakowski said. “Clearly no one wanted to take it. The first mile was slow. I tried to get a gap in the middle of the race, but they held on quite nicely. All the way down, I was just waiting until I could give one last effort, and luckily it was enough.”

The Cardinals also got top-10 finishes from Joey Finucan (fifth, 17:00) and Tyler Fuerst (17:36) en route to eight straight. Lake Catholic and Riverside made the team standings closer than one might have expected coming in, both securing trips to Boardman in the process.

“We talked a lot about the races coming in, we knew who was going to be there and everything, so it has progressed to be quite a challenging district,” Polakowski said. “We’re ready, we had a nice week of training, and just put our best foot forward and on the line today. It paid off.

“I think we’re definitely feeling better than we were. Again, it’s a young team, so there’s a lot of variables going into the race. We’ve developed quite nicely. I think we’re in a good spot to perform well next week.”

The Gilmour girls debuted nicely in Division II after moving up from D-III, with a dominant 36-point district championship of their own and top-10 finishes from Hannah Markel (second, 19:14), Katie Engle (fifth, 19:50), Gabby Iademarco (sixth, 19:55), and Alannah Barton (ninth, 20:33). NDCL and Geneva will join the Lancers in Boardman after third- and fourth-place finishes, respectively.

Gilmour, NDCL and Geneva will all send their boys team to the regional meet Oct. 31, along with Wickliffe, which finished second.

Mentor and Riverside both clinched a trip to Boardman for both sides in D-I, as the Cardinals finished second, and the Beavers in fourth. Madison will join them, finishing in third behind top-16 finishes from Caroline Lapesh (fifth, 20:24), Scarlett Pollack (12th, 21:02) and Natalie Green (16th, 21:12).

Lake Catholic got a surprise inclusion in the D-I girls regional meet, as Abbey Rojeck — projected to finish in the late-teens — shot up the leaderboards into an eighth-place finish at 20:51.

“It was definitely a surprise,” Rojeck said. “I was expecting to get maybe in the 20s or teens, but I’m so proud of myself.

“The second mile was around a 13, and I was like, ‘Oh, wow.’ The coaches told me I was actually in 11th and I said, ‘Oh man, I can get closer and closer.’ I’m so excited. It was amazing.”