After defying expectations last season, the Cardinal Huskies girls’ cross-country team set out to prove last year was no fluke. Cardinal’s postseason quest got off to a good start when it took second place at the Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division, scoring 54 points with a 4-5-11-16-18 finish last Saturday at Middlefield.
“It was pretty incredible,” said Coach Jenn Fekete. “These girls have been working hard. Last year we realized we were a lot closer to a regional berth than we had predicted. Luckily we did not graduate any of our top five runners and just worked harder than we have worked before to secure our spot as the runners-up.”
Despite all of Cardinal’s top five runners placing in the top 20, it was edged by conference rival Kirtland, who captured their fourth straight conference banner, recording 24 points with a 1-2-3-8-10 finish. The Cardinal girls ran well together as a pack, having a spread of 2:10.65 between the top five runners but the Hornet girls ran a tighter pack.
Not since winning the 2005 CVC Valley Division title have the Huskies’ girls sat atop of of the conference but Cardinal has been on a mission to build off of a historic season last year when it clinched an Ohio High School Athletic Association Division III regional team berth for the first time since 2006.
“They were putting in those hard mileage and the hard workouts and tempo runs,” said the Huskies’ fifth-year coach. “They know we have a shot again but it will take our best race to get there so they have really come together as a team and I have not seen them like this until this year with encouragement and the rallying behind each other.”
Senior Lily Ayer paced Cardinal by finishing in fourth place with a time of 21:52.88, followed by sophomore Eve Kaminski who placed fifth at 22:03.39, junior Aubreigh Kitzmiller took 11th place clocking 23:01.55, sophomore Riley Homa captured 16th place with a time of 23:51.32 and sophomore Brynley Kitzmiller snagged 18th place at 24:03.53.
“Lily is an incredible runner and has been running since she was 8-years-old and knows the ins and outs,” Fekete said. “She has been a first-team athlete for most of her career in high school so she has been a great leader on this team and is a senior.”
In addition to revitalizing the cross-country program, Cardinal’s path to the top of the CVC Valley Division became wider when former Valley Division foe Crestwood departed for the CVC Chagrin Division.
Along with having home field advantage, it was a good day for the Cardinal girls to demonstrate why they were not a one-hit wonder.
On the boys’ side, the Berkshire Badgers boys’ team returned to the top of the pack, taking second place with 54 points, posting a 4-9-10-15-16 finish.
It was a tight race, with the Badgers finishing only nine points shy of the CVC Valley Division champion Independence Blue Devils who tallied 46 points with a 3-6-11-12-14 finish.
“Independence ran really well and it was pretty tight going into the woods and I think they got ahead of us a little bit coming out of the woods and they were fighting and we were fighting and that was a great race,” said Berkshire Coach Bryan Wadsworth.
Senior Owen Zaumeyer took fourth place at 18:23.12, followed by senior Isaac Burden who captured ninth place clocking 18:58.81, junior Max Meyer came in 10th place with a time of 18:59.37, sophomore Quinlan Sirl snagged 15th place at 19:18.21 and junior Liam Bennington finished in 16th place at 19:33.27.
“When you have 24 teams on the line out there it is hard to tell where every team is at but coming around the home stretch there you could see we were all neck-and-neck there coming to the finish line,” said the Badgers’ first-year coach. “It was intense in the moment and the guys did the best they could and I am really proud of them.”
After ruling the CVC Valley Division for four of five seasons from 2017-2021, the Badgers took a step backwards last season when newcomer Crestwood clinched the conference banner and Berkshire slid to seventh place.
In addition to the Crestwood boys no longer being members of the CVC Valley Division, Wadsworth added, the Badgers were also paced by the senior leadership of Zaumeyer and Burden.
The Huskies’ girls will attempt to repeat as regional qualifiers when they compete in the Division III district meet at Madison High School and Berkshire will seek its first regional berth for the first time since 2021 in the Division II district meet at Madison High School on Saturday at 9 a.m.
