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Boardman Girls Regional Cross Country Meet

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Eric Clutter
November 1, 2009

By Eric Clutter

Record-Courier correspondent

BOARDMAN — Annie Wise got off to a good start on the messy terrain surrounding Boardman High School on Saturday afternoon and in doing so has given herself another opportunity for a state cross country title.

For the third straight year, the Waterloo junior qualified for the premier cross country race in the state by earning a fourth-place finish at the Boardman Division III Regional meet. As a freshman, Wise took 10th at Boardman. A year ago at GlenOak, she clocked a fifth-placed effort.

“She led from the beginning and held her mark,” said Waterloo head coach Greg Drugan, whose team finished seventh with 154 points. “She was always within the top five and she finished fourth. These are the top four kids — not just in Northeast Ohio. These girls should all be All-Ohio. She can hold her own with just about anybody.”

While they finished seventh, the Vikings missed the final qualifying slot by only 25 points.

“We knew we were a bubble team to maybe get in the top four,” said Drugan. “We did have an injury to our No. 2 runner, Camille Robb. She gutted it out and gave us all she had. If she’s healthy, the results might be a little different. Everyone else did what they were supposed to do. And she did a great job as well.”

Crestwood junior Sammi Vaughan qualified in Division II as she finished in 12th.

“I couldn’t be happier,” said Crestwood head coach Rosalie Franek. “She has worked really hard and has come through some adversity. She hasn’t been sick — one of the lucky ones. She has really prepared for this season and made huge gains. I can’t even explain the jump from last year to this year. She gets to experience state.”

As a team, the Red Devils, still hampered by sickness, recorded a seventh-place finish. Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary was first, followed by Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy.

“This is a really tough regional and that’s the main thing you can say about it,” said Franek. “One and two are a lock, everybody knew that, and three and four were going to be the best out of five teams. It’s not like we were surprised. We’re disappointed. But with a couple people recovering from sickness, we had no backups.

“It’s really disappointing. We felt like it was our year after our boys went the last couple of years. It just didn’t happen. Hopefully next year we’ll just keep working.”

Right behind Crestwood was Field in eighth. The Falcons did not qualify an individual, their top finisher being junior Alexus Lowden in 26th.

“The girls I’m very pleased with,” said Field head coach Ed Conroy. “We had set a goal of seventh or eighth. This is a very difficult regional. As far as I’m concerned, this regional is the toughest in the state. Alexis had a great race today. This has been a good learning experience for them at the regional. We’ll be looking to be a little bit stronger for next year.”

For the first time in eight seasons, the Southeast girls participated in a regional event and finished 16th. Freshman Quinn Sparks paced the group with a 37-place showing.

“It was a great experience for Quinn and for our team,” said Southeast head coach Cindy Fesemyer.

Rootstown was 14th in Division III, its best finish turned in by senior Brittany Metzgar (57th). Metzgar became only the fourth girl to reach the regional level in all four years of her career.

“She did the best she could today, it’s a tough regional, of course,” said Rootstown head coach Larry Bailey. “I would have liked to see her get to state, but it wasn’t meant to be.”

For the fifth straight year, it is in the cards for the Woodridge girls to compete in Columbus.

Head coach Jeff Howard’s girls squad placed third — as Howard had calculated prior to the race on a piece of paper — behind Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary and Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy to reach the state level for the fifth consecutive fall.

“For this team to advance, it is just a dream,” said Howard. “We lost three girls who are running in college this year. We have no All-Ohioans coming back and to do what we did, I think they just really had a great season. We beat some really good teams to get out of here.”

In Division I, Stow junior Katie Betts won with a time of 20:10.81.

Kent Roosevelt freshman Libby Bradford was 58th and Aurora senior Brooke Hradisky was 68th.

 




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