Girls' Cross Country Makes It Back To State Meet
With the addition of some very talented freshman runners in Natalie Pasicznyk and Sammy Bockoven, and an equally talented senior first-year runner in Sarah MacIntosh, the team was ready to make a run at state. The team also had returning, veteran runners in Mia Yeager (Jr), Taylor Myers (Sr) and a two-sport athlete in Alex Blair (Jr). Guiding all of them in their bid for state was our only returning runner with cross-country-state-meet experience, Mallory Myers (Jr).
The season saw many streaks continue as the team won the Malone Invitational for the eleventh consecutive year, and they also won the Billy Goat Invitational, a meet they have won every year since it began seven years ago. The team then got ready for post-season competition, as they warmed up with the PAC 7 Championship race which saw them winning for the eleventh straight season. Some of our seniors ran their best races that day, as Katie Knettel, Hannah Sidle, LizzieWilson, Mackenzie Maresh, Paige Oster, Anginette Fullerton and Lauren James all finished their high school cross country season on a high note. The team went 1, 2, 3 in the race, with Sammy winning it overall and Sarah and Natalie right behind her. Mia and Alex also won league honors with their 8th and 14th place finishes respectively. Sammy was voted league MVP for her performance in this meet and also the dual meet competition earlier in the season.
Starting with the district meet, the top seven were now eager and ready to get to the state meet. Along with our top seven were our next top two runners, Clara King (Sr) and McKenna Tiley (Fr), ready to step in if any one of those were ready to go in the next three races. The district race saw our team finishing second to the defending state team and Sammy winning the race overall. At the regional race the team once again finished second, and once again Sammy won the race overall.
The state meet was held at a new facility, and the weather was finally nice for a perfect weekend to finish the season. Sammy ran her best race of the season, leading the race until the final straightaway. One girl was finally able to catch her, and Sammy finished her freshman season with an outstanding second-place finish overall. She set a new CVCA freshman record of 18:28.5, beating the old record set in 1998 by Amy Arnold who was a 5-time state champion during her career at CVCA. Two of our other runners had great races, as Mallory with a personal best placed 20th and Sarah placed 23rd to earn both of them All-Ohio honors for placing in the top 25 out of 154 runners in the race. The team ended up finishing fourth overall out of the sixteen teams that qualify to state.
While losing some quality seniors from this group, the team still looks pretty strong for next season. There are some very promising underclassmen in the 32 girls who made up the largest team we have ever had for cross country. After the state meet, three of our seniors were chosen for the annual Summit vs. Stark County cross country meet held at Walsh College. Sarah, Taylor and Clara all helped the Summit team beat Stark County for the first time since the meet's inception.
In this coach's opinion, this year's team was one of the best-bonded teams since the sport started at CVCA in 1996. The team unity had everything to do with how well ten seniors on this team found a way to keep this team unified and committed to what is important in the whole scheme of the sport itself. As a team we learned how we need God to guide us as we struggle with everyday things and how we should rely on Him for everything. The team studied the book Running With the Giants each week and had amazing discussions that helped us learn about each other.
