The Streetsboro Rockets girls’ cross-county team’s 19-year drought without earning a team regional berth has finally ended. The Rocket girls secured a team regional berth to the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division II regional meet when they snagged sixth place, scoring 216 points by recording a 30-34-49-51-52 finish at the Division II district meet last Saturday at Lorain County Community College in Elyria.
“It’s a very big deal,” said Coach Jon Hannan. “In 2003 both our girls and boys teams made it and since then we have not had a team make it out. We have had individuals here and there but our goal has always been to get back to the regional meet so it is super exciting. The girls are very excited about it just to be able to continue our season.”
Streetsboro will attempt to capture a state berth when they compete at the regional meet at Boardman High School in Youngstown on Saturday at 12 p.m.
“It will be very valuable,” said Hannan, who has coached the girls’ team for three seasons. “Being realistic, getting the sixth spot at district, it will be really tough but I think it will be good experience for the girls because for 20 years we have been saying hey let’s get to regionals and now we can look forward to the next step and just getting the experience of being there as a team.”
Streetsboro was paced by sophomore Kendall Epple, who placed 30th with a time of 2:18.60, followed by sophomore Madi Campbell, who took 34th place clocking 22.33.10, senior Cara Tiller captured 50th place at 23.24.40, junior Kenzie LaGuardia snagged 52nd place with a time of 23.27.70 and junior Grace Thomson finished in 53rd place in 23.29.60.
Every point counted for the Rocket girls, who fended off Elyria Catholic by five points to snap their 19-year absence from the Division II regional meet.
“We knew that it was going to be hard for them to individually qualify but they did not get discouraged by that,” Hannan added. “Kendall got 30th place and Maddie got 34th place so we just told them the closer you get to that pack up front, the better our team will do even though you may not individually qualify, it is really going to help our team qualify.”
Hannan credited the resurgence of Streetsboro’s cross-county program to the youth program that was only established seven years ago but has helped commit younger athletes to continue running when they reach high school.
The top 24 individual runners earned regional berths but the Rockets were the only qualifying team out of their district to not have a runner earn a regional berth but instead relied on a pack-running strategy to propel their team forward.
In spite of snagging the last team berth, the Rocket girls had the best split, recording 1:11.00 from their first through fifth runner.
According to Hannan, the biggest key to Streetsboro’s success was the return of their lone senior, Tiller, who returned to competition only five weeks ago after missing the first half of the season due to health issues.
“I told her I am going to give her a spot on the district team because she has something to run for,” he said. “I told her if we do not advance as a team this is your last race in your career for cross-country, so she went out and put together a really good race and came back from those injuries and really helped our team.”
There was a wide gap between the Rockets and the top five teams, with Metro Athletic Conference rival Woodridge winning the district team title with 34 points and only 73 points separated them, Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, Hathaway Brown, Cloverleaf and Bay while Streetsboro finished 109 points behind the fifth-place Bay Rockets.
“We knew that to get that sixth spot we would have to compete with some of those teams that were more built like us like Elyria Catholic, Fairview Park and Holy Name,” said Hannan. “I just told the girls you may not necessarily have to run your best time, it is all about placement and having our top five basically in the top 50 scoring points was very exciting and just really helped us out.”
Streetsboro’s depth also was highlighted with their sixth runner, Sonia Downing, finishing in 58th place a year after earning an individual regional berth by finishing in 21st place in the 2022 district meet.
“That just shows all of the girls in front of her have improved and the seventh girl, Kailyn Malloy, she was our second runner most of the year so some of those girls like Grace and Kenzie really stepped up to score for our team and it was exciting for them,” Hannan said.
