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Howland boys capture Sim Earich team title
By Ryan Buck
BAZETTA
Saturday’s Homecoming dance preparations would have to wait. Before the suits could be slipped on and the corsages prepared, the Howland cross country team had business to attend to at the Trumbull County Fairgrounds.
Tiger runners Ethan Petrilla, Connor Dotson and Ben Cole placed first, second and third, respectively, in the Division I and II event of the Sim Earich Invitational. As a team, the Tigers earned first place with a 17:00 average and 34 team points, easily outrunning Canal Fulton Northwest (74), Cleveland St. Ignatius (77) and Boardman (87).
The Howland trio aim to push each other every day in practice. On race day, when the stakes are raised, the intensity mirrors a typical practice.
“We stick with each other,” said Petrilla, a junior who finished the 3.1-mile course in 16:33. “It’s always a race and we race to the end of practice. We push each other really hard.
“During the races, we work together more than try and race each other, but today they went out harder than I did and I kind of sat back and went after them in the second mile. I let them have first place for a little while in the beginning.”
Dotson, who crossed the finish line 15 seconds after Petrilla, says competition breeds success.
“Every day in practice we do that,” he said. “Running in the races is second nature for our team. We always like to push each other.”
Cole, a senior, says the Tigers, who will race again next next Saturday at the Fairgrounds in a Division I district meet, have set some big goals for themselves.
“Our end goal is to try and make it to state this year and we’re only going to do that by pushing each other harder and harder every day,” Cole said, before the inevitable Homecoming question was posed. “We’re still all focused on next week and districts. so we can move on to regionals [and], hopefully, to State.”
Howland sophomore Ethan Neff added to the Tigers’ point total with an 11th place finish. Nick Long and Ethan Schwendeman, both of Boardman, finished fifth and sixth, respectively. Boardman is without standout runner Nathan Hadley due to injury.
In the girls Division I and II race, Boardman took the title followed by Howland, Girard, Lakeview and Poland.
Jordan Grantonic’s fourth-place finish and Casey Zaitzew’s sixth-place finish paced the Spartans.
Other local teams also found success Saturday.
The Badger girls earned first place as a team in the Division III race while the boys were second to Western Reserve Academy. The Braves’ Owen Reeher won the boys race.
Badger’s girls also captured the Northeastern Athletic Conference title Tuesday afternoon.
“They’ve really been coming together as team these last few weeks,” said coach Carrie Albert. “We had the goal to come here and try to win it. We wanted to have a positive experience on this course as it is our district course and the girls did what they needed to do today.”
Emma Hunkus’ fourth place time of 21:59 led the way and Kelsey Mislai, in seventh place, came in at 22:22.