This season marked the largest Men’s Cross Country team in the sport’s history at CVCA: 26 guys who worked hard not only during the season, but were also prepared for a season of excellence because of their work year round. Regardless of the teams that this group raced against, it did well, posting an overall record of 133 wins and 20 losses. Some of the achievements during the regular season included a first-place finish at the Malone Invitational, a third-place finish for the JV team at Malone (against all divisions), a first- place finish at Walsh, and for repeating as P.A.C. champions for the 6th consecutive year. All P.A.C. honors went to Joel Griffith (15th, honorable mention), Noah LeBay (10th, honorable mention), Ryan Adams (7th, first team), Ben Bockoven (5th, first team), David Cremi (4th, first team), and Will Anderson (2nd, first team).

In the post-season, the team qualified out of a very competitive district with a third place finish to the Tiffin Regional. At the Tiffin Regional the team qualified for this year’s State meet with a fourth place finish. Finally, at the Division 2 State Meet, our CVCA men had their best finish ever at States with a third place finish. Those who ran on that varsity team through the State Meet were David Cremi (27th), Ben Bockoven (36th), Will Anderson (37th), Ryan Adams (39th), Noah LeBay (78th), Joel Griffith (116th), Luke Mazanec (118th), and Chris Cochoff was our 8th man/alternate. Cross Country races are scored based on the places of the first through fifth runners (with the lowest score winning), so what’s amazing about this group is that there was no superstar on the team, but, instead, a low-score was achieved because they ran well together.

Running as a tight pack in cross country is ideal, but doesn’t always work out practically for many teams, but, this year, this type of racing did communicate the focus of this group of young men—TEAM! Our seniors will also be greatly missed next season because of their discipline in the sport and their leadership in our theme this year on “resurrection” (I Corinthians 15)! Senior cross country runners were Chris Cochoff, Joel Griffith, Cameron Holloway, Darryl Moore and Matt Morse. Chris, Joel and Cameron served as our team captains this year.