High school cross country: Mentor Cardinal Classic reaches 50th year

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

On Sept. 3, the Mentor Cardinal Classic will be run for the 50th time. While the length of the race, the location and the layout have changed multiple times over the past five decades, it’s become a staple on the cross country landscape of Northeast Ohio.

After Mentor removed the program in 1936, it was brought back by Coogan Reese in 1957. Sixteen years later, the first Cardinal Classic was held and won by North’s Tom Henderson, when it was a two-mile course.

As the years went on, the sport and the course evolved from a two-mile meet to 2.5 miles and the 5K course that it is today. Through those changes, the event has built a reputation as being one of the first measuring sticks in the season.

Mentor coach Bill Dennison has been around as an athlete and a coach for the Cardinals since 1991 and has continued the tradition of the meet. He is also just the fourth Cardinals head coach on the boys side since the return of the program.

“It’s a testament to the school, the team and the culture of the school,” said Dennison. “There are a lot of meets that with a coaching change or an athletic department change see long-standing meets come to an end. I think the rich history that is the Cardinal Classic is something that speaks to the success of the coaches that came before me. Coogan Reese and Jim Green did a lot to help establish the program to help draw people to the meet.”

While the meet has grown into one of the best early season challenges for runners, that wasn’t always the case. Green remembers when the fields were composed of just local schools.

But during his time with the program, Green saw schools like Copley, Toledo Central Catholic and Pickerington Central, to name a few, participate. He is proud to see the field grow to what it is today.

“When I took over, we only had six teams coming to the meet and it was run on a Friday afternoon after school,” said Green. “We had at one time had five of the top seven teams ranked in the state coming to our meet during the ’80s. We were able to build that reputation as a powerhouse and people wanted to come there and challenge us and we wanted to test ourselves. Those were very exciting and competitive competitions with those teams. The biggest field we had while I was there was 21, and Bill told me he has 30 coming this year and that’s astounding.”

Green helped the meet grow into what it is today. But the sport continued to change after he handed the reins to Dennison. The sport transitioned from hand timing to digital and allowed for results to be posted and distributed quicker and the development of a lot of flat and fast courses.

Runners a personal-record time might be a challenge on this course. With six hairpin turns as well as the course changing from open spaces to narrow paths, it features a lot of challenges.

“We try to make the course as fast as we can but there are a lot of rolling hills,” said Dennison. “Garfield Park is a lot more challenging, and people have called it a true cross country course because it’s a mixture of everything. I think it’s very important to know some of the better teams that are coming to the meet. When you look at it, there’s only been one four-time winner in the meet’s history, and that’s Michelle Sikes of Lakewood.

You have a lot of great runners from throughout the years and there’s always the challenge. You have to get strategic and it’s not all about setting a blazing time. It really helps you start to set up for the postseason.”

Even though the race has been held at Garfield Park since 1982, which served as the first time the event turned into a 5K, it’s seen six layout patterns in those 40 years. The current course has been in place since 2012.

Dennison was the coach for the most recent course change. He said it’s a challenge to set up the circuit every season. But Green knew that teaching his then assistant coach how to set up the course would be a major help in the future.

Dennison still follows a lot of what Green did in his time as the head coach.

“The amount of detail that Jim put into the event was crucial and I wasn’t just given the keys but walked through everything,” said Dennison. “It starts in the summer getting letters out to the teams. We have relay nights during the setup for the race so while some kids are running, others are cleaning up the course. We need to work on the trails for the course and the boardwalk. You have to order the awards. I make a packet for the fans so that everyone knows who’s there and where they’re starting as well as the history of the event. I’ll be there on Friday with my own tractor to cut the grass to make the path and then we will stripe the two sides. That day alone is going to be 11 hours of work just getting the course itself ready. Then be there at 6 a.m. on Saturday to put in the markers and wait for the timers to get there.”

Green knew that Dennison was ready for the challenge of both running the program and setting up the course. While it wasn’t easy to step away, Green knew he had the right successor in place.

Not only has Dennison taken the Cardinal Classic to new heights, he has also seen at least one state qualifier in 13 of his 17 years as well as nine team qualifications.

“Bill has boundless energy and is a very motivated guy,” said Green. “He loves the sport and anytime someone loves something that much it carries over to the student-athletes. They can’t help but absorb that energy and want to keep things going. You look at the history and guys want to exceed that. Bill is a fan of the history of the program as I was and he’s always trying to help the team excel. He does a great job of promoting the program and keeping traditions like the Cardinal Classic running.”

The meet will begin at 9 a.m. with the boys varsity race followed by the girls scheduled to start at about 9:35 a.m.