Sunday, October 26, 2014
Maplewood’s Tristan Dahmen won the Division III regional race
By Greg Gulas
BOARDMAN
Last year’s top two boys cross country teams at the Division III state meet have earned a return trip to Hebron. At Saturday’s regional tournament at Boardman High School, McDonald and Maplewood qualified for state.
Maplewood, last year’s state runner-up, won the Division III regional while McDonald, last year’s state champion, finished fourth.
The top four teams and 16 individuals in each division qualify for state competition. McDonald’s girls team won the Division III meet.
Four other local runner qualified individually: Mineral Ridge’s Nathaniel Toth and Logan Smith, South Range’s Xena Maali and Poland’s Maggie Sebest,
In Division III boys, Maplewood’s Tristan Dahmen (16:01.44) ran off with top honors, outdistancing Smith (16:02.42) and McDonald’s Allen Sparks (16:29.59).
Dahman, who finished as runner-up last year, was hoping for a top-three finish.
“My goal was to be competitive and show strength and endurance,” the top Rocket said. “Around the two-mile mark was when I wanted to pick it up and it worked.”
Smith, who will be making his second consecutive state appearance, finished 18th a season ago.
“I was hoping for a top-three finish so I am happy with that,” Smith said. “My strategy was to stick with Tristan and I did.
“But he kicked it in at the top of the hill and made it tough for those behind him,” Smith said.
Sparks said he felt more confident this year.
“My training really helped prepare me,” Sparks said. “Our goal was to win regional so we’re set and ready to go.”
Maplewood coach Dave Deeter said his Rockets will savor the moment and then get back to work on Monday.
“We ran competitive today and knew there were a lot of teams peaking,” Deeter said. “There were plenty of great races and quite a few solid performances.
“We’ll look to drop our mileage now and get ready to fly for next weekend.”
It will be the 16th straight state appearance for McDonald head coach Chris Rupe’s team. The Blue Devils were state champions in 2011 and 2013 and runners-up in 2010 and 2012.
“I don’t know if a team in the state has a streak that long, but we wanted to keep our streak alive,” Rupe said. “We knew that we would have our hands full, but also knew that if we ran our best then we would qualify.”
The McDonald girls team has never finished higher than third at state and was denied a state berth last season by a point. This time, the Blue Devils edged Gilmour Academy, 75-76.
“I couldn’t be more excited for a great group of kids,” McDonald coach Mike Richards said. “We posted a No. 1 on the tree by the starting line to remind us of that one point and that has been a rallying cry for us all season.”
Heidi Hoffman, a junior who placed fourth with a time of 19:50.69, will be making her third consecutive trip to the state. She placed 21st last year.
For Division I boys, Mentor took top honors with 76 points while Howland was the top local team, finishing 12th with 280 points. The Tigers’ Ethan Petrilla (17:08.52) finished 22nd and was tops locally.
For Division I girls, GlenOak took top honors with 100 points while Boardman’s Jordan Grantonic (21:14.23) was the top local entry, finishing 63rd.
For Division II girls, Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary took top honors with 53 points while Poland finished eighth with 221 points.
For Division II boys, Chardon’s Notre Dame Cathedral Latin was tops with 88 points while Lakeview finished 15th and Poland 16th.