Cross country runners hope to step it up

By Pete Mollica

The Penguins will compete at the Horizon League championships at Green Bay.

11Both YSU teams are very young, with only two seniors on each squad. But veteran coach Brian Gorby, who is in his 16th season guiding the program, has high hopes for both teams.

A year ago, with a freshman-dominated team, the YSU men finished third in the championships held in Valparaiso, Ind., and Gorby is hoping that his runners can step it up a notch this year.

Gorby has been rebuilding the Penguins which is why his rosters are so heavily dominated by underclassmen, but he’s also made it a point to bring in a lot of local talent.

The men’s program has five area runners on the roster, including brothers Jake and Rick Lape of Boardman. Other are sophomore Joe Copploe of McDonald and Jim Ramson of Poland, and senior Dan Nemergut of South Range.

The Penguins’ top runner this season has been junior Justin Dickman of Van Wert, whose best finish this year was sixth place in the Tommy Evans Four-Mile run early in the season.

Last year when the Penguins finished third in the Horizon League Championships, Dickman took 10th place, while Jake Lape was 17th.

Still the Penguins were a long way away from league champion Butler, which scored a record low 15 points to win. Loyola was second with 100 and the Penguins a point back at 101.

“Butler is the premier team in the conference and is ranked among the top 10 schools in the country, but they also recruit all over the country and the world, and have at least five or six international runners on the squad,” Gorby said.

Jake Lape likes the Penguins chances of improving on last year’s finish.

“Our experience this year gives us a tremendous amount of confidence coming into the championships,” Lape said. “We are coming in expecting to do very well.”

Lape said the five area runners on the team really work well together.

“We kind of refer ourselves to the five local all-stars,” he said. “We’ve all very close and we’ve been competing against each other all through four years of high school and here.”

He also enjoys the companionship of his brother.

“Running with and against him is a great experience for me,” Lape said. “It certainly makes athletics a whole lot more fun. I’ve got seven other siblings and the entire family just enjoys taking part in our activities.”

Dickman expects the Penguins to make a good showing Saturday.

“We are capable of finishing as high as second place, but realistically it could be anywhere from second to sixth place,” he said. “We’ve beaten five teams from the league already this year and if we run to our potential we could be right up there in the top two.”

The YSU women, who finished 10th (last) a year ago, know they have only one way to go this year, but they also feel that they made enough strides to finish in the upper half of the standings.

The meet is being held in Green Bay, so the weather could be a factor.

“We get a lot of practice running in cold weather around here,” said sophomore Kayla Witmer, a South Range High graduate.

“We’ve got this theory that when the weather is real cold, the faster you run the quicker you get to get out of the cold,” she added.

Junior Lauren Blase, a Boardman native, enjoys working out in Mill Creek Park to prepare for the meets.

“We usually have two speed workouts a week and then on the weekend we run on our own,” she said.

“We have a lot of confidence going into the championships,” Blase said. “We’ve beaten five Horizon teams this year, but we’re going to need to put out our best times this weekend.

“We didn’t have a senior on the team last year and we’ve grown a lot this year,” she said. “We’ve all worked very hard and we are going to have to work together in the championships.”

The Penguins have seven local players on their roster, led by Witmer and Blase. They also have Witmer’s twin sister Kelcie, freshman Liz Shivers of Salem, sophomore Jamie Rollo of Poland, freshman Elizabeth Kelvington from East Palestine and senior Madelyn McGhee from Brookfield.

Witmer comes from a very athletic family. In addition to her and her sister, there are also two more siblings at South Range, while her cousin Ariel, a South Range senior, recently won the individual golf state championship.

The men’s championships will begin Saturday at noon, while the women are set for a 1 p.m. race.

mollica@vindy.com