Mooney, Poland win cross country titles

VINDICATOR STAFF REPORT
EAST PALESTINE -- Mooney's Colin Durina placed first in Saturday's East Palestine Invitational, leading four Cardinals in the top 12, as Mooney edged Struthers for the boys team title.
Durina finished in 17:16 -- 20 seconds ahead of Poland's Jimmy Ramson -- to set the course and meet record. Leetonia's Danny Simpson (17:18.60) held the previous course record and East Liverpool's Mark Montgomery (17:28.80) had the meet record.
Mooney's Sean Finnerty placed fourth, Noah Brak was sixth, Brian Stevens was 12th and Brian Brenner placed 29th for the Cardinals, who edged the Wildcats 51-66.
Howland's Vinny Freedman (third) and East Palestine's Corey Chick (fifth) rounded out the top five.
Girls
Poland's Colleen Moran and Lauren Fithian finished 1-2 as the Bulldogs cruised to the girls title, edging Boardman 41-58.
Moran finished with a time of 20:49 -- 23 seconds ahead of Fithian -- and Poland's Molly Noll took sixth. Struthers' Amanda Ardale placed third, Leetonia's Melissa DiPanfilo took fourth and Boardman's Katie Stoll was fifth.
Ray Sweeney Invitational
CHAMPION -- Lakeview's Mark Rozard cruised to first place with a time of 17:34.9, leading four Bulldogs in the top 15, as Lakeview beat Mineral Ridge in the six-team Ray Sweeney Invitational at Champion High School.
Bristol's Andrew Swargo took second in 18:08.2, while Joe Horne (Grand Valley), James Packman (Champion) and Dennis Simpson (Mineral Ridge) rounded out the top five.
Girls
Lakeview's Nicole Taddei placed first and teammate Chelsey Coe was fifth to lead the Bulldogs to the girls title over Conneaut. Bristol's Jen Armour took second, Champion's Danielle Bafunno was third and Conneaut's Amy Spring was fourth.
Tiffin Country Carnival
TIFFIN -- McDonald, a Division III school, finished first in the Div. II race in the Tiffin Country Carnival Cross Country Run.
Aaron Thornton of the Blue Devils placed 19th in 17:10 in the field of 315 runners. McDonald's Joe Copploe (17:10) was 23rd, Matt McNicholas (17:15) was 29th, Anthony Puntel (17:24) was 34th and Taylor Sowers (17:27) was 40th.