High school girls cross country: Kenston girls take D-II regional title by one point

The following article was posted on the News-Herald’s website. Congratulations to the Cardinal girls on their road to State!

YOUNGSTOWN — One point. The difference between heartbreak and triumph.

That was the story for Kentson and Bay in the D-II girls regional meet. On Oct. 29, it was the Bombers who soared higher than the Rockets as Kenston nabbed the team title at Boardman, 108-109.

The Bombers saw the duo of Paige Masson and Emerson Greene take the final two spots in the top 10 to counter Bay’s lone top-10 representative of Maeve Ransom, who was seventh.

“It’s really the whole team as you need the one through seven to run well,” Kenston coach Chris Ickes said. ” It was one runner today but if it was tied like they initially announced it would’ve been down to the sixth and seventh runners. It was important for both Brianna McIvor and Sarah Roman close off our scoring as strong as they did today.”

The Bombers have exuded selflessness this season with three different runners who have led the team at different meets. Along with Mason and Greene, Cecelia Paglia has also found herself as a front runner for Kenston as she was second at the Madison District.

All three echoed the thought of approaching the season in a selfless mindset where they put the team result ahead of themselves.

“We switched from D-I to D-II and saw that as an opportunity to embrace this as a team,” Masson added. “That focus has been huge these past few weeks and we’re ready for the challenge of the state meet.”

Also in the team race, the fight for the sixth and final team spot was one that was going to be tight, but Perry had other thoughts in mind.

The Pirates saw four runners finish in the top 60, led by Grace McKoon in 11th. That put them with a team score of 190 compared to St. Vincent-St. Mary with 256 and Tallmadge with 262.

Pirates coach Bill Sarvis has seen the team come into form as the season progressed. They took first at the CVC meet and he feared that they had peaked. But the past two weeks, he’s seen them earn team advancements and continue to improve.

“We’ve been working so hard this season on hitting mile two and putting the hammer down,” Sarvis said. “The girls have responded well to that mindset. To see it unfold like it did today was amazing. We saw all the faith play out well to get everyone to states.”

Also advancing to the state meet as individuals are Chagrin Falls Mila Gresh (fourth, 19:32.7), Gilmour’s Amy Weybrecht (fifth, 19:51.0), Hawken’s Brielle Collins (14th, 20:01.5) and Geneva’s Mya Evangelista (20:06.3).

In the D-I meet, It was Katie Clute of Olmsted Falls who took the top spot followed by Westlake’s Sarah Peer took second. The third spot on the podium belonged to Mentor’s Savannah Dennison as she posted a time of 18:34.7, ahead of Rocky River’s Brianna Chaves.

The senior had a challenging race to prepare for as she knew she was against two of the top runners in Ohio. But being able to maintain a third-place finish was a big momentum builder for next week.

“Even just to hand onto Sarah for a while there is really good for me heading into the state meet,” Dennison said. “I know I can stick with her and that allowed me to take third and break away from the four and five easily. With a lot of turns here at Boardman I was able to turn and look behind me to know where they were and the distance I had on them.”

Along with her third-place finish and Maddi Clark in 40th, Mentor finished seventh as a team to advance to the state meet as a team for the fourth year in a row. They are also joined by Riverside’s Taylor Jasinski, who placed 25th (19:51.6) to take an individual advancement spot.

In the girls D-III race, Lake Catholic’s Kelly Ward held an advancement position from the start of the race and knew that maintaining that position was important.

In her third regional meet, the junior finally was able to check off the advancement to the state meet with her 13th place finish with a 20:15.0.

While another race of maintaining her position wasn’t what she intended, Ward knew that preserving that position came paramount when they looped back through a second time.

“It was a tough battle and with that battle of being right there for one of those spots, that really kicked me into gear,” Ward said. “The last few meters and the second time through the forest I knew that’s where I needed to be strong. I was able to pick up some spots along the way and that was a big move for me.”

After Ward and Norwayne’s Lillith Dreibelbis, it was three familiar faces for the final two advancement positions. One went to Grand Valley’s Anna Steimle which left Wickliffe’s Markalla Tumbry and Kirtland’s Ainsley Borthwick to duke it out for the final position.

They traded positions the past two meets with Tumbry ahead of Borthwick at CVCs and vice versa at the Madison District. But as they came down the final stretch, the two were neck and neck.

But then Tumbry turned on the jets and surged ahead to finish 16th with a 20:45.0 and advanced to the state meet. She is the first Wickliffe runner since 1991 to reach the state meet.

“Right at the end I was still in 17th and I was going to be really disappointed if I was one spot short,” Tumbry said. “I had to go for it and that last stretch was very surreal. If I’m being honest I wasn’t feeling the best and was in 17th for a lot of that race. But I knew I needed to do it today and have that surge.”