High school cross country: Columbia's Madeleine Finton wins Lorain County Division II-III runner of the year award for third time

Madeleine Finton has a pretty good idea why her high school cross country career has been so successful. "I definitely thrive on competition," she said. The Columbia senior added a final win Monday when she was named the Lorain County Division II-III girls Runner of the Year for the third time. The four-time Division III state qualifier led the list of county MVPs with Keystone senior Stephen Faltay earning the Division II-III boys honor for the second year in a row, Avon sophomore Maddie Harrington winning the Division I girls award and Amherst sophomore Luke Bowlsby taking top honors for boys in Division I. The awards were presented when the 21st annual All-Lorain County Cross Country team was announced during a ceremony at Schlather Insurance in Elyria. Finton finished sixth at this year's state meet to earn All-Ohio (top 30) honors in a career-record time of 18:30.5. It was her second all-state performance after taking 29th as a junior in 19:36.7. She was 36th (19:40.4) as a sophomore and 71st (21:09.8) as a freshman. "Wasn't sure how far I could go after my state appearance my freshman year because it kind of blew up (at state)," Finton said. "Thankfully, I stuck to it and trained harder after that. All the trials that I went through really helped to put it altogether." Finton is the first Division III Lorain County girl to advance to state more than twice. Her state time was a personal record and is the fastest time by a Lorain County girl at state since Amherst's Alexis Szivan ran 18:30.48 in Division I in 2014. "I think when you have that many good athletes on the same course you're bound for success," Finton said. "I'm still kind of shocked with myself dropping 37 seconds. I know I should have run 18's earlier in the season, but that's huge. It's everything I dreamed of and really worked for." Finton won her second Lorain County League title in three years and third conference title overall with a time of 19:30.0 as she helped the Raiders win their second straight LCL championship. She followed that with a second-place finish at the Elyria district in 20:03.0 to help Columbia to its second straight regional berth. She followed that with a fourth-place finish at the Boardman regional in 20:09.6. All three of those races were run on courses that were waterlogged and muddy. She is only the third Lorain County girl to earn runner of the year award three times, joining Amherst's Alexis Szivan (2012-14) and Avon's Erin Schneider (2007-09). Finton credits Columbia coach Adam Bailey for much of her success. "He has always kept me well-grounded," she said. "He's taught me to trust the process and has always supported me and pushed me. We tweaked some things this year. I was never injured or overtrained." Faltay made state this season for the third year in a row, finishing 68th in 16:50.3. Last year he became the first Keystone boy to earn county runner of the year honors, which dates back to 2001. "I'm very happy," Faltay said. "It's amazing to win this award. I feel very honored. I tried to keep my approach to each meet the same throughout the season, even the postseason. Although the state tournament is the biggest meet in the state, you don't want to change your approach. I give a lot credit to my teammates and all my coaches. We graduated some key guys, but always have people on the team that can make up spots and give us the range we need." Faltay won his second straight LCL title in 16:39.2 to lead the Wildcats to their third straight conference title. He finished fifth at the Elyria district in 17:02.9 as Keystone made it to the regional tournament for the second year in a row. He was 13th at the Boardman regional in 17:48.0 to qualify for state. Harrington is the fourth Avon girl to earn Lorain County Runner of the Year honors, following Jules Frombach (2017-18), Claire Robertson (2016) and Erin Schneider (2007-09). She placed 56th at state in a personal-record time of 19:13.4. "It's a great honor being county runner of the year, especially since I'm only a sophomore and there are a lot of other talented runners in our county," Harrington said. "It's a great honor to get to where I was." Harrington helped the Avon girls win their third Southwestern Conference title in four years and fifth overall dating to 2015. She also helped the Eagles make it to their eighth straight regional. The Eagles just barely missed a state berth by six points at the Boardman regional. Individually, Harrington was third at the SWC meet (20:18.67), 10th at the Elyria district (19:45.7) and 26th at the Boardman regional (20:48.6). "My coach (Justin Carroll) and my parents were a big reason for my success," she said. "They helped push me to be the best that I could. They've always been very supportive. It was a very fun season and I'm very grateful that I was able to do that. The state meet was definitely the hardest race I ever ran. It was definitely challenging but it was worth it." Bowlsby is the sixth Amherst boy since 2004 to win county runner of the year honors. While he didn't quite match his state-qualifying performance from 2020, he still had a successful season, winning the SWC meet in 16:58.94 to help the Comets finish second. Bowlsby was fifth at the Elyria district in 16:33.1. A late-race falter caused him to fall back and finish 41st at the Boardman regional in 17:46.6, nine places and 17 seconds from qualifying to state. "This award means a lot," Bowlsby said. "Last year, it was something I really wanted, but obviously I didn't get it. This year I'm honored and blessed to get it. I'm very happy with it." Bowlsby lost out to teammate and classmate Ty Perez last year. "I had a pretty bad race at regionals, but obviously the whole season wasn't a waste," Bowlsby said. "I got some great accolades over the season. Overall, it didn't end the way I wanted it to finish but there were still some great memories with the seniors. I don't think there's anything to be upset about." Contact Paul Heyse at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. BOYS Division I Runner of the Year: Luke Bowlsby, so. (Amherst) First team: Ty Perez, so. (Amherst); Matt Henry, sr. (Avon Lake); Matthew Bowman, sr. (North Ridgeville); Adam Dixon, sr. (Avon Lake); Bradan Schnabel, jr. (Avon Lake); Sebastian Pecora, sr. (Amherst) Second team: Cooper Tanski, fr. (Avon); Paul Osborn, sr. (Avon Lake); Jared Robinson, so. (Midview); Franco Gallo, fr. (Avon); Alex Serna, sr. (North Ridgeville); Lucas Edgell, fr. (Midview); Zach Winter, sr. (Avon) Honorable mention: Evan Holtzmeier, sr. (Avon); Henry Isaacs, so. (Amherst); Zachary Janus, so. (Midview); Mitchell Jackson, so. (Elyria); Ben Hallowell, jr. (Avon); Colin Plunkett, jr. (Avon Lake); Ryan Szczepanik, sr. (Amherst) Division II-III Runner of the Year: Stephen Faltay, sr. (Keystone) First team: Joe Webb, fr. (Vermilion); Michael Couture, jr. (Open Door); Sam Sikorski, sr. (Columbia); Anthony Januzzi, so. (Firelands); Jackson Hartung, sr. (Firelands); Andrew Young, fr. (Lake Ridge) Second team: Dan Grisel, fr. (Vermilion); John Wargo, sr. (Keystone); Ethan Zientarski, sr. (Elyria Catholic); Teddy Murphy, sr. (Open Door); Micheal Gale, so. (Keystone); Jack Cunningham, jr. (Keystone); Evander Fedor, so. (Keystone) Honorable mention: Dominick Chireallo, sr. (Open Door); Nolan Raack, fr. (Open Door); Marty Joyce, jr. (Brookside); Ian Borton, sr. (Firelands); Aiden Bokulich, fr. (Firelands); Rylan Copen, fr. (Firelands); Gabriel Gargasz, sr. (Firelands) GIRLS Division I Runner of the Year: Maddie Harrington, so. (Avon) First team: Anika Singh, fr. (Avon); Catherine Turner, jr. (Amherst); Liz White sr. (Avon); Kylie Bennington, so. (Avon Lake); Kate Leininger, fr. (Avon Lake); Carolina Reed, fr. (Avon) Second team: Audrey Sanzone, sr. (Midview); Aurora Wilson, jr. (Amherst); Marisa Del Valle, sr. (Amherst); Sarah Pomfrey, so. (Avon); Termeh Shahmir, fr. (Avon Lake); Kiera Byrne, fr. (Avon Lake); Leah Gerke, sr. (Amherst) Honorable mention: Erin Boland, sr. (Avon Lake); Savannah Reed, sr. (Avon); Sally Butler, fr. (Avon Lake); Anna Argabright, so. (Avon); Sophia Elios, so. (Avon Lake); Madelyn Palcic, so. (North Ridgeville); Winter Carrell, fr. (Amherst) Division II-III Runner of the Year: Madeleine Finton, sr. (Columbia) First team: Madison Palmer, jr. (Brookside); Maria Gilles, sr. (Lake Ridge Academy); Jessica Gower, sr. (Brookside); Riley Egli, so. (Columbia); Zoe Gifford, jr. (Firelands); Allison Leopold, sr. (Vermilion) Second team: Rachel Washburn, so. (Columbia); Isabella Watters, so. (Wellington); Mona Mchaourab, jr. (Lake Ridge); Kayla VanDyke, sr. (Elyria Catholic); Aurora Davis, sr. (Firelands); Casey Spatafore, sr. (Keystone); Hana Bodo, so. (Columbia) Honorable mention: Faith Dull, sr. (Oberlin); Ella Meszaros, sr. (Firelands); Lily Pierre, fr. (Open Door); Taylor Morris, so. (Wellington); Emmarose Woods, fr. (Firelands); Jenna VanDouser, sr. (Vermilion); Lauren Schemmel, sr. (Elyria Catholic)