The Bay boys cross country team begins its quest for a West Shore Conference championship last Saturday morning at Cahoon Park. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

Bay boys, River girls run to titles
By Jim Horvath
Sports
Published Oct. 21, 2009

While the course conditions were different this time around, the overall results remained pretty much the same.

At the beginning of the high school cross country season, the Bay boys and the Rocky River girls claimed titles at the West Shore Conference preview Meet at Cahoon Park. Both state-ranked teams came out on top again last Saturday at the WSC Championship Meet despite the wet and muddy conditions.

It was a big day for both the boys and girls teams at Bay.

Junior Michael Brajdic, a serious contender in the upcoming Division II postseason meets, won the boys title with his time of 16:24.71. It was his second straight WSC championship after taking the runner-up spot as a freshman.

Overall, the Rockets placed five runners in the top 10 to win the boys title with 28 points. Rocky River, behind the one-two punch of Tommy Eldridge and Eric Stoddard, came in second with 39 points.

The Rocky River girls cross country team gets out of the gate quickly on its way to the West Shore Conference championship last Saturday at Cahoon Park. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

On the girls side, sophomore Hanna Sterle came out on top again with her time of 20:01.44. Sterle and the Rockets managed a third-place team finish with 89 points, with River scoring an impressive 21 and runner-up Avon a 52.

Bay also won the middle school girls title, scoring 17 points to easily outdistance runner-up Avon’s score of 58. Seventh graders Maddie Voiers and Mallory Fahey took the top two spots for the Rockets with times of 11:42.84 and 11:51.97, respectively.

The Rocky River girls dominated their race with five runners in the top seven. Four of them finished in the top five right behind Sterle, which impressed Pirates head coach Laura Brabant.

“I’m really happy with what we were able to do,” Brabsant said of her squad, which ranked fourth in Ohio in Division II. “We went out really strong in a pack of five, and the girls did a great job working together and pushing each other.

“It’s been that way all season for them,” Brabant said. “They’re not worried about one of them finishing ahead of the other. They just care about the team result at the end. It was fun to see our freshmen and sophomores compete like they did, and Brittney Towner did a great job of setting an example for them, from last summer to now.”

Towner, a senior who had been sidelined the past two weeks to rest her knee, came in seventh overall with a time of 20:47.56. She wasn’t far behind her youthful teammates, however.

Sophomore Maddy McDonough finished right behind Sterle with her time of 20:03.46. Fellow sophomore Elyse Bierut was right there as well with her time of 20:09.88. The River freshman, Madison Connelly, was fourth with a time of 20:26.67, while another sophomore, Megan O’Keefe, came in fifth with her time of 20:30.19.

The second-best finisher for Bay was senior Lisa Griebel, who took 18th with her time of 22:09.64. Senior Kelsey Barnes was 21st with a 22:18.04, junior Samm Sanson was 25th with her 22:34.35 and sophomore Maureen Piccirilli finished 29th overall and fifth for the Rockets with a 22:39.68 clocking.

Fairview finished sixth overall in the girls race. Leading the Warriors was junior Kayla Kazanowski, who took 28th with a time of 22:38.44.

The Bay boys, despite season-ending injuries to Sam Allen and Joey Kinkelaar, still had enough depth to score the team championship.

“Our depth has saved us,” admitted Rockets head coach Steve Babson. “Sam broke his foot a few weeks ago at Tiffin, and Joey broke his foot during a soccer match. We had some other runners step up for us today. It’s a good thing we have that depth.

“I thought Jacob Schreibman came through really big for us today. He took almost 20 seconds off his previous best time, and that’s hard to do on a wet course like this,” Babson said.

Schreibman, a senior, was the fourth finisher for the Rockets with a time of 17:45.54, which was good for eighth place overall. Junior Nick Banks was fourth behind Brajdic, Eldridge and Stoddard with his time of 16:57.34, while senior Brian Zeuch took sixth with his time of 17:22.55. Senior Jeremy Farver was right behind Schreibman in ninth place with his time of 17:50.17.

Rocky River’s strong showing gave the Pirates five finishers in the top 13 spots.

Eldridge, a senior, took second with his time of 16:49.20. Stoddard, a junior, was third with a time of 16:53.16, while junior Alex Rokakis gave River three runners in the top 10 with his 17:50.46.

Right behind in 11th place was senior Martin Russ, who came through the chute in 17:53.14. River’s fifth man, senior Tim Gibbons, was 13th with his time of 19:00.04.

The Fairview boys were fifth overall, with sophomore Brian Hom leading the way with a time of 18:30.49 (25th).

Now it’s on to the district meet at Lorain County Community College this Saturday. Both Brabant and Babson, and certainly all the rest of the cross country coaches in the area, were hoping for better weather conditions for their teams to run in.

“Hopefully it will stay dry this week,” Babson said. “It should be a strong field Saturday with Bay, River, Avon and Elyria Catholic, along with Black River and Buckeye. It would be nice to have some good weather for those teams to compete in.”

“We’ve had four weeks in a row now with the rain, the mud and standing water,” said Brabant. “Our girls have risen to the occasion so far, but it would be nice to see what we could do under better conditions.”