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Cardinals await district challenge
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CANFIELD — There are nine athletes on the Canfield High School girls cross country team that Coach Doug Weitzman is getting ready for district competition.
The seniors are Shannon Reed and Molly Martin, also a varsity soccer player. Also on the squad are: junior Elizabeth Wilkens; sophomores twin sisters Nicole and Katie Tiberio and Jillian Smith; and freshmen Marla Muricci and Kathryn Zetts.
Canfield has seven district spots.
Martin and Reed have provided the leadership this season for the underclassmen who continue to show improvement each week.
“The kids are great on and off the course and they get along well together,” said Weitzman, a Struthers High School guidance counselor. “We get up early Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and practice before and after school.
“They are just a motivated group that works hard and push each other and they want to finish well at Division I district.
“The girls look up to are seniors for leadership and encourage each other to do the best they can,” Weitzman said. “They pick up each other when they are having a good or bad race. They are wonderful kids and I am lucky to be associated with such a group.”
Reed, a cheerleader, has a 3.73 grade point average and is secretary of the student council and treasurer of the National Honor Society.
“For the most part, the underclassmen look to us for encouragement,” Reed said. ““All of us push each other to do the best we can.
“We have district in two weeks and hopefully we get as may runners as we can into the regionals and see where it goes from there.
“Coach Weitzman is really a nice guy. He knows when to have fun, yet he pushes the team to do the best they can,” Reed said. “We know when to compete, have fun together and do what we have to do to be successful.
“We have a big cross country group at every Canfield football game and we’ll be at Homecoming [tonight] when we play Chaney.”
Nicole Tiberio, the team’s top runner is one of the tri-captains, as are Melanie Lozier and Reed.
Tiberio, who has run against some of the area’s and state’s best, said, “It’s so exciting, I love that kind of competition and have improved by times at big meets over the past four weeks.”
Nicole said that she and her sister have 3.3 GPAs and they run a lot together and get along pretty well.
“We both run distance races for the varsity track team,” Nicole said. “I belong to the German Club and Katie is trying out for the bowling team.
“During the summer the team ran a lot, five or six miles a day,” Nicole said. “Coach Weitzman makes us work hard, he’s an inspirational leader and gives us pep talks before big meets.”
“Nicole [14 minutes, 39 seconds] is shooting for a trip to the state meet,” said Weitzman in his second year at Canfield after 17 as Struthers’ cross country coach. “She made it to the regional as a freshman last year and we want her to get past that and she’s going after the school record [19:06].”
miller@vindy.com