When a high school cross country team runs alongside the best in their own conference, that can only help make them get better. The Streetsboro Rockets cross country team hope that is the case after the girls’ team captured fourth place at the Metro Athletic Conference meet, scoring 107 points with a 15-16-19-27-30 finish and the boys placed fifth by recording 141 points with a 21-24-27-32-37 placement last Thursday at the Silver Creek Metro Park in Akron.
It was the best finish for the Rocket girls since joining the MAC, finishing only eight points short of overtaking Field for third place.
“The girls were very excited and are in the top half of the league,” said Coach Jon Hannan. “So just to be able to compete with those top three teams there and be close, I think gives our girls a lot of hope going into next weekend’s district race. The teams in front of us were Woodridge, Cloverleaf, and Field, so those teams have all been doing well this year so just being able to compete with them gives our kids that excitement and motivation going into next week.”
Sophomore Madi Campbell paced Streetsboro by coming in 15th place, clocking 22:02.20 followed by sophomore Kendall Epple, who took 16th place with a time of 22:03.60, freshman Kaelyn Malloy snagged 20th place at 22:11.40, senior Cara Tiller captured 31st place clocking 23:03.90 and junior Grace Thomson placed 36th place with a time of 23.27.80.
For the 18th time in 19 seasons, the Woodridge girls reigned supreme as the conference champions, posting 22 points with a 1-2-3-7-9 finish.
Hannan, who has coached the girls for three seasons, acknowledged the Bulldogs have set the standard for a while.
“It is tough to close the gap but we are improving every year,” he added. “I tell my kids to try and improve one spot every year in the team standings and both of our teams did that and our girls only missed third place by seven points. If we can keep inching closer to them then that shows where our program has gone and we are growing every year just by trying to take it one step closer to closing that gap.”
It was an improvement from last season’s conference meet when the Rocket girls finished in fifth place, scoring 124 points with only one runner finishing in the top 20.
This season, Campbell, Epple and Malloy each crossed the finish line in the top 20 and Streetsboro’s pack running was better, recording a spread of 1:25:00 between their top five compared to having a spread of 2:11:00 last year.
“Their goal was to get in the top 15 so they could get second team honors all-league,” Hannan said. “Maddie got 15th place so she got that and Kendall was 16th by 1 second so she almost got it and Kaylan was almost there at 20 so they were all excited about that.”
Having graduated only one senior from last year’s squad, the Rocket girls returned this season with more experience under their belts and according to Hannan, the groundwork has already been said for more successful seasons.
On the boys’ side, junior Timothy Harkleroad took 24th place with a time of 18:16.80, followed by sophomore Marcus Peters who came in 10th place with 18:35.20, sophomore Chris Daniels snagged 33rd place at 18:58.80, freshman Ares Miller captured 39th place with 19:18.90 and Mario Puleo took 46th place by clocking 19:32.20.
“They grinded really hard,” said Hannan, who has been the boys coach for five seasons. “We have been dealing with some injuries and we were missing our top runner. To have a 5th place finish while missing one of my top five runners and having a couple of other kids dealing with some injuries showed our depth and we can miss someone but still place relatively well in a tough conference.”
In spite of Streetsboro graduating two-time Division II state qualifier Zachary Vales, Hannan said the boys’ depth has improved.
“We are relatively young and a lot of our top runners are juniors but that gives us a lot of experience going into next year and our boys are excited about that,” he added. “Whatever we can do this year can build into next year and we should have a pretty good postseason and transfer that over to our next season.”
Hannan acknowledged the boys are in a spot where the Rocket girls were in last year by not having much experience but by competing in a conference with several teams that are state-ranked like Woodridge and Field has been beneficial to their growth.
Streetsboro will try and snap a 19-year streak of going without a regional team berth when it competes at the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division II district meet at Lorain Community College next Saturday at 9 a.m.
