|
Over the weekend, the most elite cross country runners and teams competed for a chance at qualifying for the state cross country tournament in Columbus.
Sixteen runners and four teams from the area were hoping to achieve the elusive goal of qualifying for state meet by finishing in the top 16 individually or in the top four as a team at the regional meet at Hedges-Boyer Park in Tiffin.
Leading the pack was Clay’s Erin Gyurke, who qualified for the state meet last year as a freshman. Gyurke, who finished 91st in 19:33 at last year’s Division I state meet, finished second (18:54) at the district meet last week, setting herself up for another shot at state. In fact, 18:54 would’ve gotten Gyurke a 32nd-place finish at last year’s state meet.
Along with teammate Alexandra Selee, who finished in 10th place in 20:29, the Clay girls team finished in fourth place, good enough to qualify for regionals.
Gyurke has been dominant throughout the season at major events, finishing fifth at the Cardinal Stritch Invite (124 runners), seventh at the Clay Eagle Invite (137 runners) and third at the Three Rivers Athletic Conference (TRAC) meet (52 runners), steadily improving as the season progressed.
On the boys’ side, Clay’s Thomas Gibbons is looking to make it to state after coming close last year. In the 2010 Division I regional meet, Gibbons, despite running a remarkable 16:20, fell eight spots short of advancing to state, coming in 24th place, further proof of just how competitive things are at the Division I level.
In Division II, the Lake boys’ and Eastwood girls’ team qualified for regionals, finishing fourth and third, respectively. Four Eastwood girls qualified individually, among them Maddie Jackson (fifth in 21:00), Meagan Kaminski (sixth in 21:05), Madi Renollet (eighth in 21:43) and McKayla Phillips (13th in 22:00).
The Lake boys were led by Scott Brittenham, who ran a 17:50 to finish 14th. Fellow NBC runner Clay Parlette of Genoa finished right behind him, coming in 15th in 17:53.
Seven individuals and one team from the area advanced to the Division III regional meet in Tiffin. They were: (boys) Jacob Kissell (10th in 17:51) and Jacob Merryfield (11th in 17:54) of Gibsonburg, Tim Lynn (14th in 18:06) of Cardinal Stritch, Kaleb Perez (12th in 17:36) and Chris Hines (13th in 17:37) of Woodmore; and (girls) Olivia Carbe (12th in 21:20) of Northwood and Allie Wank (16th in 21:49) of Woodmore.
 |
Sports 
Subscribe to this comment's feed