Lenehan off to fast start at NDC

Ross Lenehan from Austintown Fitch High, a freshman distance runner at Notre Dame College in Euclid, already has set or been a part of six school records.

“He has quite a wide range of abilities and we are still trying to figure out where his niche may be,” said Notre Dame track coach Joe Magill. “Lenehan has a lot of talent. He is blessed with a lot of ability. We are trying to get him to be more consistent with his training and his racing.

“Sometimes his race tactics demonstrate a lack of experience. We are trying to figure out how best to do it.”

Lenehan set the school’s 10,000-meter record with a first-place time of 33 minutes, 2.70 seconds, at the American Mideast Conference Championships on April 18, to become the first Notre Dame male track performer to win a conference distance championship.

Before that, on April 4, he set the school’s 3,000 steeplechase record with a first-place time of 9:42.72 at the Don Frail Invitational, just missing to meet the qualifying time for the NAIA national meet by about two seconds.

During the indoor track season on Jan. 17, Lenehan set the school’s 5,000 record of 16:04.33 at the Doug Raymond Open.

He also set the 3,000 indoor school record at the All-Ohio Championships.

Lenehan, who also runs cross country, said he has “made a big improvement from Fitch to Notre Dame,” and credits that to having “teammates interested in what you are doing and all shooting for better times.

“I was running a lot in the winter every day and that helped.”

But Lenehan left an impressive legacy at Fitch under coach Rich Kempe that will be hard to match — first-team All-Suburban League and the Falcons’ Most Valuable Performer all four years in both sports — yet still managed to improve to another level at Notre Dame.

He also has been part of two indoor relay school records: The distance medley relay at the 2009 NAIA national meet and the 4x800 relay at a meet in Findlay.

“My best event is definitely the 10,000 but they put me pretty much wherever they need me,” said Lenehan.

“The steeplechase, that’s my favorite race. It is a new event for me this year. They just kind of threw me in there. The obstacles are definitely interesting and it breaks up the monotony of the course.”

He said the steeplechase is not like cross country but “more like track, running on a track with hurdles, and one of the hurdles has a water pit. It adds variety to the race, just like on a hot day you get cooled off.

“The water pit is beyond the hurdle and goes up on an incline. The pool is 3 feet deep closest to the hurdle then becomes more shallow as you go up the grade.”

The javelin still is a work in progress for Lenehan.

“One of my teammates does it and so I picked it up to see if I can do it. I had a couple of decent throws but nothing impressive. I am going to practice in the summer to get better,” said Lenehan, the son of Lori Lenehan who is majoring in education.

Lenehan also was a member of the 4x400 relay that placed first (3:31.30) in the Bill Vanhorne Invitational on March 28. He also placed third in the 1600 (4:24.00) at the Greater Cleveland Championships on Feb. 20.

Lenehan also had a good cross country season last fall, becoming the team’s No. 1 runner most of the time.

“I had a good race at All-Ohio. I was the second-fastest freshman that wasn’t Division I, and fourth overall. That was probably my best race, not time-wise but [because] the course is probably the most difficult I ever have run,” Lenehan said.

XJohn Kovach writes about college athletics for The Vindicator. E-mail him at kovach@vindy.com.