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Boardman’s Hadley has big goals for state
By TIM CLEVELAND
Going into his last chance at the state cross country meet, Boardman’s Mark Hadley is as confident as he can be.
The senior swept both the Division I district (in a time of 15:23.35) and regional (15:22.50) meets the past two weeks, the first time he has done that, as he hopes to improve on his previous finishes of fifth (as a sophomore) and sixth (last season) at state.
“I’m feeling really good about it,” he said. “I’m trying to keep a level head and stay humble. I’m feel I’m the favorite and hoping to defend that title.”
The state meet will be held Saturday at National Trail Raceway in Hebron. The first race will start at 11 a.m.
Hadley, who will run collegiately at Furman, said he’s gained extra confidence by winning both districts and regionals.
“Definitely,” he said. “In my opinion it was the toughest regional. Some of the best individuals were in that in region.”
Boardman coach John Phillips said Hadley has even been holding back a bit in the past few races.
“Fortunately, the last couple weeks Mark has comfortably run,” Phillips said. “Since the Spartan Invitational he’s not had to put out that kind of effort. He’s gotten out to a lead and kind of cruised. He has all that energy saved up and can put a Spartan Invitational performance or better out on Saturday.”
Hadley will be joined Saturday by his Spartan teammates, who won the regional meet with 94 points, 23 ahead of runner-up Chardon.
“We’re healthy and running very well,” Phillips said. “With the way we ran last week at regionals and districts in not the greatest weather conditions, we had tremendous scores and times. The weather [on Saturday] is supposed to be perfect and the course conditions are going to be ideal for our guys. We kind of get disrespected by the Cincinnati and Columbus teams. We usually go down there and do very well against them. We’re looking forward to exceeding expectations.”
In Division III, Maplewood and McDonald will be among the favorites at state. The Rockets won the regional meet last week with 82 points and the Blue Devils were third with 99.
McDonald’s Bobby Johnson won the regional title in 16:02.33, an improvement on his district-winning time of 16:18.08.
“Bobby is really feeling good and looking good,” McDonald coach Chris Rupe said. “He’s excited because most of year I held him back. He’s excited because I’m not holding him back anymore. He’s excited about racing against the best in the state.”
Johnson was fifth at state last year, running 15:39.45 to earn first team All-Ohio honors.
“It remains to be seen; we’re excited where we’re at,” Rupe said of his expectations for the Blue Devils as a team. “We’re in a good spot to go in and place in the top three or four teams in the state.”
Maplewood coach Dave Deeter said his team has been improving over the last several weeks.
“We’re excited about what’s been going on,” he said. “Guys have been dropping times over the past month, especially our 5, 6, 7 and 8 guys. It’s been very positive for us. I think we have a positive attitude; there’s a lot of good competition down there.”
Other local boys runners at state are Howland’s Ryan Sullivan in Division I, Allen Sparks of (Champion) in Division II and Logan Smith of Mineral Ridge in Division III. Local girls in Division III are Ashleigh Rowley of Western Reserve, Mollie Pierson of South Range, Allison Parks of United and McDonald’s Heidi Hoffman.