Dugan leads McDonald to state
By Joe Scalzo
He recovered from an injury and placed 10th overall as the Blue Devils won the regional.
CANTON — Earlier this week, McDonald sophomore Jerry Dugan was playing flag football at school when he lunged to grab the flag and was pushed into the bleachers by one of his friends.
“It would have sounded more manly if you said your coaches overworked you,” McDonald assistant cross country coach Louis Domitrovich said.
Maybe in 20 years, the story will escalate into Dugan having hip replacement surgery just days before leading the Blue Devils to the state title.
On Saturday, though, it wasn’t quite so dramatic. A visit to the doctor and a couple days of rest did the trick, and Dugan looked pretty strong in finishing 10th overall to lead the top-ranked Blue Devils to the Div. III regional title at GlenOak high School.
“I just wanted to make it out,” Dugan said. “I didn’t care what place I got today as long as we make it out.”
Dugan finished 39th at last year’s state meet — the third-best performance by a freshman in Div. III — as McDonald finished a distant second behind Louisville St. Thomas Aquinas.
This year, the two teams are neck-and-neck entering the final week. The Blue Devils edged the Knights 74-78 Saturday to set up a showdown at Scioto Downs in Columbus.
Unfortunately for McDonald, the girls team won’t be joining them. They finished sixth — just three points away from the last qualifying position, nabbed by Columbiana. (Maplewood’s girls were fifth, just one point behind the Clippers.)
McDonald’s girls and boys had qualified every year since 1999 — the longest combo streak in the state.
Maplewood’s boys kept their state streak alive, finishing third to advance to Columbus for the 19th straight season. The Rockets have won four state titles over that span and finished second three other times.
“We’re at the point where the streak started before these guys were even born,” said Rockets coach Ted Rupe, whose brother, Chris, coaches at McDonald. “That starts to put everything in perspective. They’ve heard about it their whole lives.”
Boardman junior Sam Deskin finished eighth in the Div. I race to become the only area athlete to qualify in the state’s top division.
It will be the first state appearance for Deskin, who normally has a home-course advantage at the regional. But when rain (and runners) shredded Boardman’s course during the Spartan Invitational, tournament officials decided to move the race to GlenOak.
Most area runners liked the change, due in no small part to the fact that Boardman’s course is one of the slowest and most difficult in the state.
“I’m used to sleeping in a little more, but I’ve run that course every day for the past four summers,” Deskin said. “This is a nice change of pace.”
Deskin didn’t sleep well Friday night, due to a combination of nerves and a late-night showing of “Halloween,” but looked strong during the race.
“I’m just shocked,” said Deskin, who will run alone next week after his team finished seventh Saturday. “I’m ecstatic. I’ve wanted this all summer, waking up at 7 a.m., doing runs. It all pays off.”
Lakeview teammates Tyler Ames and Heath Harris finished fifth and 14th, respectively, in Div. II to earn state berths. The top four teams and the top 16 not on a qualifying team advance.
“I was probably 100th around the half-mile mark, so I just kept moving up, picking as many people off as I could,” Harris said.
On the girls side, Mooney senior Christina Oles placed 16th in Div. II to emerge as the only area girl to qualify in the top two divisions.
Div. III was a little more friendly.
Jackson-Milton senior Samantha Hamilton placed second and Lowellville’s Monica Ciarniello was fourth as both runners earned return trips to the state meet.
“I had two plans in my head,” said Hamilton, who finished more than 40 seconds behind the winner, Canton Central Catholic senior Christina Oprean. “One was totally destroyed from the first second of the race. The second one, I was gonna go with her [Oprean] but I felt her start to pull away from me and my legs got so tight.”
So Hamilton backed off and ran a smart race throughout, evidence of a runner who has learned from past mistakes.
“My freshman and sophomore years, I was just a ball of nerves,” she said. “I’d get to regionals and completely fall apart.
“This year, I was a little nervous but I just tried to stay focused. I told myself I could win, but the goal was to get in the top 16 places. I just tried whatever I could to stay up there.”
scalzo@vindy.com