Fitch, South Range race to Mahoning titles
By Greg Gulas
AUSTINTOWN
The Austintown Fitch High School boys cross country team registered five of the top nine finishes Tuesday to capture top honors at the Mahoning County Cross Championships at Austintown Township Park.
Falcons Craig Schumacher was fourth and Matt Rozic was fifth. Finishing seven-through-nine were Andrew Green, Ben Davenport and Garen Gibson.
It was the first time in 13 years that Boardman, which finished runner-up and 24 points off the pace, did not walk off with top honors.
In girls competition, South Range had the top two finishers and won over runner-up Fitch.
“Boardman has been very good the past several years, so to win on our course is really a very special feeling,” Fitch boys coach Paul Farr said.
Farr said his team dedicated the meet to former Falcons cross country coach Rich Kempe, who was recently diagnosed with cancer of the salivary gland.
“We’re a really good pack team and the speed between our top five finishers was just 14 seconds,” Farr said. “We’re 10 guys deep, and in any given week that number will float up and down.”
Canfield finished third but had the top two finishers in Chase Kern (16:24.20) and Mack Mettille (16:47.50).
“I didn’t finish like I wanted to last year so my goal was to win it all this year,” Kern said. “My strategy was to push the first mile, get everyone tired and then pull away the pack the last two miles.”
Mettille, who finished 23 seconds behind his teammate, said he wanted to go out fast but keep pace.
“I thought that I did a fairly good job of that today,” Mettille said. “To take the top two spots is really very special. Chase pushed me today and all I wanted to do was hold on.”
Nick Long was the top Boardman finisher, posting a third-place finish in 16:58.60.
Teammate Ethan Schwendeman (17:00.80) was the other Spartan earning Top 10 laurels.
“I really didn’t expect to do as well as I did, but I’ll take it,” Long said. “This was a packed field and as a team I thought that we did an excellent job.
Long said his time beat his personal best by 17 seconds.
Boardman coach John Phillips was quick to credit their All-American Conference arch-rivals for an excellent showing.
“The Falcons ran well and deserved to win,” Phillips said. “Our guys also ran well and I like how we have progressed over the course of the season.
“Fitch, Canfield and Howland are all very good teams and we’re just hoping to be in the mix with them.”
South Range’s Mollie Pierson (19:54.70) and Xena Maali (19:55.75) helped the Raiders edge the Falcons, 60-95. Western Reserve’s Ashleigh Rowley (20:08.44) finished third.
“The last few meets we were a little lazy and didn’t work as team, but today it was nothing but teamwork,” Pierson said. “Xena and I just kept pushing each other — [she] is my running bud and we’re very competitive.”
Maali was pleased with their performance.
“Finishing one-two isn’t too shabby,” Maali said. “Mollie and I always feed off each other and it was no different tonight.”
Raiders coach Diane Krumpak was pleased.
“This team pushes each other in both practice and at meets so finishing first and second today is no surprise,” Krumpak said. “This is our best performance.”
Rowley’s goal was to win, but didn’t mind being 15 seconds off the pace.
“I didn’t want to start out fast, but realized that I had to pick up the pace as the race progressed,” Rowley said.
It was the highest finish in the meet in Amy Diefenderfer’s three seasons as head coach of the Falcons.
“We ran with heart and plenty of determination,” Diefenderfer said.