A historic cross country season for the Crestwood Red Devils girls’ team has ended with them leaving their mark at the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division III state meet in Fortress Obetz. The Red Devil girls cemented their place as the best girls’ cross country team in school history by finishing in fourth place, scoring 198.0 points with a 4-12-13-50-119 finish.“
It was a great day,” said Coach Jim Schweickert. “We did everything we could, pretty much everything we wanted to. It is the highest finish in school history, and it is the best team in school history, and I can’t say anything bad about it. It is awesome.”
The last Crestwood girls’ cross country team to finish that high at a state meet was the 2005 squad, led by Red Devils’ great Bridget Franek, who won the OHSAA Division II state title and paced the Red Devil girls to fourth place by scoring 154.0 points.
According to senior Piper Seibold, after a season filled with many milestones, the only thing left for the Red Devils to do was to leave their name in the school record book with one last strong performance at the state level.
“Getting fourth place was exciting for us because we had a goal to score higher than any team had here before and that is exactly what we came here to do on Saturday,” she said.
Last Saturday, freshman Luci Maschek led the Red Devils by finishing in seventh place with a time of 18:27.60, followed by senior Maddie Grace Gonczy who earned 20th place at 18:57.60, Seibold collected a 21st place finish at 18:58.20, senior Piper Freedline netted 80th place with a time of 20:08.50 and sophomore Abby Pfost who took 166th place with a time of 21:11.70.
As was the case throughout the season, Maschek paced the Red Devils by running near the top flight of runners.
She hit the first mile checkpoint sitting in 10th place with a time of 5:43.29, moved into sixth place at the second mile mark at 11:38.13 and completed the race by finishing in seventh place.
“It is an experience,” noted the Red Devils’ freshman. “It is amazing to be surrounded by such amazing girls running, everyone has been so encouraging but it has been great. The team has been working so hard and just to be here is an amazing experience.”
According to the 16year coach, although it was Machek’s first state cross country race at the varsity level, she looked as confident as she has throughout the season.
“She is not intimidated in big races and all of these great runners, some of whom she has run against all year and beat all year,” he added. “She stepped up. It was great.”
Maschek was flanked by the senior duo of Gonczy and Seibold, who were each returning to their second consecutive OHSAA state meet after being individual qualifiers last season.
The Red Devils’ senior duo started the race in the back, but quickly moved up, as Gonczy held 35th place and Seibold was sitting 35th place at the first mile.
Seibold, who finished in 68th place at last year’s OHSAA Division III state meet, acknowledged that running side-by-side was something that the Red Devils’ duo strived for in what would be their final high school cross country race of their careers.
“I am not going to lie, before the race I said to Maddie Grace that this is our last race ever together, I want to finish at the line together,” she noted. “Basically, if one of us would get ahead or one of us would drop back, it would be just stay with her.”
The Crestwood duo continued matching each other’s stride but continued to climb in the standings, as Gonczy was in 22nd place and Seibold held 23rd place at the two-mile mark. The senior duo made one final push in the final mile, with less than one second separating their times.
“That is not only them on Saturday, that is their entire career which has been like that.” said Schweickert. “They have run step for step in practices, in meets and this was just a perfect finish for the two of them to run like that.”
Gonczy, who clinched in 52nd place last season at the state meet, added that having more familiarity with the course at Fortress Obetz aided her and Seibold’s bid for stronger performances.
She emphasized that having the entire Crestwood girls’ team qualify for the state meet was a big priority for her and Seibold.
“I think it was important,” she said. “I know that they all wanted to be here too and are all putting in hard work, it is exciting to be here.”
The Red Devils’ trio paced Crestwood by each finishing in the top 24, earning first team All-Ohio honors, and wrapping up one of the strongest cross country seasons in school history.
Although the Crestwood Red Devils’ will look different next year with three of the top five runners graduating, Maschek said that she is looking forward to leading the team back to Fortress Obetz.
“It is sad for me that they are going to be leaving but we have amazing teammates and the team attitude has been amazing this year, so I have been happy with that,” Maschek said.
