At this time of the season, high school cross-country teams are preparing to make their move and be in shape as good as possible for the second half of the season. The Streetsboro Rockets boys’ and Garfield G-Men girls’ cross-country teams each earned fifth place at the Cardinal Invitational with the Rockets scoring 188 points with an 11-21-33-46-77 finish and Garfield recording 181 points with a 20-34-40-43-44 finish last Saturday morning in Middlefield.
“That was our first time being out at the Cardinal Invitational,” said Rockets’ Coach Jon Hannan. “We have never been there before and I thought the boys performed very well. Surprisingly we had a fifth-place finish when we were missing our fifth runner. To see that someone else stepped up on our team to score in our fifth spot was pretty impressive.”
Senior Timothy Harkleroad led Streetsboro by taking 11th place with a time of 16:51.65, followed by junior Chris Daniels who placed 21st by clocking a time of 17:24.91, freshman Troy Mazer recorded a 33rd place finish with a time of 17:58.98, junior Marcus Peters came in 46th with a time of 18:23.60 and senior Hayden Brown took 89th place with a time of 19:42.77.
The sixth-year Coach acknowledged that it was a learning experience for the Rockets, who were racing at Cardinal’s home course for the first time. He said that the course being flat worked well for Streetsboro because its next invitational was also on a flat course but because the Rocket boys were unfamiliar with the course, they did not know what to expect. .
“Next year when those kids go back there, they know the course and know it is pretty fast and will probably have an even better performance,” he added.
According to Hannan, the Rockets struggled to stay in a tight pack from the beginning of the race because of the sharp turn they needed to make once they exited the football field. Hannan also said that once Streetsboro reached the woods, that part of the course lasts longer than they expected.
That did not stop Harkleroad from pacing his team as the first Rocket to cross the finish line with the fifth-fastest time in school history, followed by Daniels and Mazer who each set personal records and it marked the first time since Hannan took over that the top three runners finished in under 18 minutes.
“If you ask Tim, he will say he did not run well because his goal is to break the school record and he wants to go under 16 minutes and he has dreams of running in college and stuff like that, but Tim is a really hard worker and one of the most knowledgeable kids about running and willing to put the work in,” Hannan said.
On the girls’ side, the G-Men were led by freshman Nora Yukich who placed 20th with a time of 21:14.36, followed by junior Kathlene McMayon who came in 34th place with a time of 22:28.42, sophomore Abigail Kolar finished 40th with a time of 22:43.03, senior Loreal Puleo snagged 49th place with a time of 22:56.41 and sophomore Rebecca Evans captured 44th place with a time of 22.56.58.
Despite taking fifth place, the G-Men girls had the lowest split with only 1:42 separating their first through fifth runner.
According to Coach Matt Pfleger, it all starts with the junior McMayon leading her team from the start of the race.
“Kat is our leader right off the pack,” the fourth-year coach added. “She always attacks that first mile really hard. It was not her fastest time on Saturday, but she leads off and Nora, Abby, Becca and Loreal, they just stay with her and after that first mile they start picking away at it.”
Yukich ultimately passed McMayon at the end of the race to become the first Garfield runner to cross the finish line but Pfleger emphasized that McMayon set the pace for the rest of her teammates.
He added it was still an impressive finish for the G-Men’s freshman.
“I didn’t want to put expectations on her as a freshman but she comes out and performs every day so it is not surprising to see her doing it but with the returnees from last year on the team, I am sure she was nervous about it, but she does a great job just focusing on what she has to do and blocking out the outside noise,” Pfleger said.
Streetsboro will return to action when it competes at the Woodridge Invitational at Cuyahoga Valley National Park this Saturday at 9 a.m. while the G-Men girls will compete at the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference meet on Oct. 1 at Woodland Park in McDonald.
