CROSS COUNTRY South Range boys capture Division III in Spartan meet

The Raiders were led by Dan Nemergut's second-place finish.
By MARK W. MILLER
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
BOARDMAN -- Area athletes had a chance to go against some of the state's best cross country runners Saturday at the 19th Spartan Invitational meet.
South Range High won the boys Division III crown with 105 points. Cardinal finished second with 111, Maplewood was third with 114 and Lordstown was fourth with 135.
Dan Nemergut of South Range took second place in 16 minutes, 48.57 seconds at Boardman High's 5,000-meter course.
The Raiders' Doug Miller (17:31.4) was fourth, Taylor Sowers (18:18.6) was 14th and Mike Kenney (19:03.8) was 40th.
"It was fun, I felt good," said Nemergut. "I am a little shocked at how I've progressed."
Coach Jack Nemergut of the Raiders said, "We did well as a team. We don't run in the Suburban League, so this was only our fourth outing this season.
"We had a nice performance and our young kids are just starting to come around, learning how to run the race."
Kevin Somerville (16:45.4) of Mogadore won the run.
Maplewood was second at last year's race.
"I am proud of these kids, they worked well together working their way through runners," said the Rockets' coach, Ted Rupe.
"I didn't know if we could be that competitive, but we were."
McDonald girls third
The McDonald girls placed third and Gilmour Academy won the Div. III title. Laura Drocton of Kirtland (20:12.25) took first place.
Ashleigh Tondo (21:22) of McDonald, who finished 14th, said, "We knew there were a lot of good teams so we came out with our strategy and all of us ran pretty good times."
Cardinal Mooney, behind Colin Durina's third place (16:58.4) came in third in the Div. II run. Minerva won the team title with 140 points.
"This course was tough," said Mooney's Sean Finnerty. "It was a little slower than most course, but we like tough courses."
Added Durina: "We ran against very tough competition and I am pleased by my effort. What I did was help our team."
"Some of the state's strongest Div. II teams were here today and third place was good because our kids have worked hard since last summer to do this," said Mooney coach Adrian Mangino.
Poland's Colleen Moran (20:05.4) placed third in the girls Div. II run to help the Bulldogs finish fifth. Crestwood was the champ with 159 points.
"I had a hard week of training and it paid off," said Moran. "I tried to beat last's years time (20:50). It's a tough course to run, it's open a lot and it gets hot out there."
Boardman is 10th
In Div. I, Boardman placed 10th. Cleveland St. Ignatius, one of the state's top squads, took first place with 61 points.
Eaton Shamus (16:27) of Uniontown Lake won the run and St. Ignatius had three of its runners in the top 10. A field of 249 competed in the race.
In the girls Div. I race, Canfield was 17th and Boardman 19th in the field of 32 schools. Massillon Jackson was champion with 73 points.
Melissa Green of Brecksville (19:28) took first place. Jackson had its four runners in the top 16 spots.