High school cross country: Wellington girls win first Lorain County League title; Black River repeats as boys champs

SULLIVAN TWP. — Wellington's girls pulled off a first while the Black River boys successfully defended their title Saturday at the Lorain County League cross country meet at Black River High School. The Dukes girls had never won an LCL meet though they did win the old Lakeland Conference championship in 1984 and 1985. "Wellington hasn't seen a girls conference championship since the '80s but I'm not 100 percent on that," Dukes coach Jeff Hook said. "It's been a good year. I'm very proud, very proud." It was a four-way race with Wellington edging surprising Oberlin 58-64 to claim the top spot. Columbia came in third with 74 points and Firelands was fourth with 76. Isabella Watters and Lauren VanNatter finished fourth and fifth for Wellington with Jayde Davis and Joyce Stallard finishing in the top 21. Firelands sophomore Audrey Smith won the meet in 21:23.3 with Brookside's Emma Palmer taking second in 21:48.1 and Oberlin's Olivia Hudson third in 22:06.1. "It was really a moment of relief," Watters said. "It's something we've been working for all year. It was like, 'Are we going to win, are we going to make the podium?' Even though it was a really close finish, I'm relieved it's over." "Oberlin coming in second took us by surprise," VanNatter said. "So proud of myself." "It doesn't get any better," Hook said. "Oberlin came on really strong, stronger than we've seen before. I think what really clinched it for us was our third, fourth and fifth girls really picked it up." Oberlin's finish may have surprised some people but not its coach. "They worked hard all season for this," Oberlin coach Rodney Hooks said. "I'm very proud of them. This is not really Olivia's forte but she can do it. She just let the ones who finished first and second get a little bit ahead of her. You saw the strength of her at the end." Hudson competed at the state meet in the 400-meter dash last spring as a freshman. The weather turned out to be a bit better than expected but the course remained wet and muddy in spots. Rain was expected to fall but it was overcast and cool for the meet with no rain. Keystone senior Michael Gale won the boys title in a meet-record time of 16:17.9, outdistancing the field by nearly 40 seconds. Black River senior Dillon Royster duplicated his second-place finish from a year ago with a time of 16:56.8. "That's kind of what my plan was," Gale said. "These are some good, class runners. Last time I was here (Black River's course), I took the lead at Mile 1 and I just kept putting the pressure on them until they broke and couldn't keep up. I tried the same strategy today and it worked." "Michael is a extremely competitive racer here," Keystone coach Mike Habenicht said. "We were here for the J.B. Firestone (meet) so he got to see what it was like and got to sample it there. We talked all week that it's going to be rain, it's going to be cold. You've got to be ready for that. Michael's a smart guy and he'll prepare for the best." "Cool air and not cloudy is perfect running weather but the course was pretty muddy," Gale said. "On some turns it got a bit difficult but it didn't cause a lot of problems. It was a lot better than I thought." Black River, ranked ninth in the state in Divisiion III, placed five runners in the top 10, beating second-place Firelands 25-62. Keystone came in third with 65 points. Freshman Connor Rhein finished third behind Royster for the Pirates with Nicholas Kosteci finishing fifth, Christian Orgel sixth and Noah Orgel ninth. "Our goal was to come in and win it again this year," said Royster, whose brother Wyatt finished first a year ago. "We thought we had a pretty good chance. We know where all the hills are, where to push, where to settle in and try to be as efficient as possible." "They did a great job," Black River coach Patrick Brean said. "We talked all week about protecting our home course. Our runners built this course themselves, mapped it out. We let them take pride in that. They went after it from the gun. They raced to win and not race to lose. Yes, we were the favorite on paper but they didn't take that to heart and competed so hard." Wellington junior Joe Fox came in fourth, while Dane Vanderpool, Rylan Copen and Peyton Vanderpool finished seventh, eighth and 10th for Firelands. On the girls side, Smith was 25 seconds faster than her closest challenger. "It was amazing," Smith said. "My coach kind of told everyone what to do to help me. Our injured players would be at the mile markers screaming where there was the next person. So the whole team helped me know where everyone was on the course." As for the possible rain and cold, Smith was prepared. "One thing my coach always told me about track and cross country was to pack like you're camping," Smith said. "I packed everything I could for whatever the weather could be. I just knew in my mind, the course was the course no matter if it's dry or if it's wet, it's going to be the course and I ran it before. I kind of knew where I was." Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7135 or timothygeb@msn.com. BOYS TEAM STANDINGS: 1. Black River 25, 2. Firelands 62, 3. Keystone 65, 4. Wellington 112, 5. Columbia 116, 6. Brookside 160INDIVIDUALS: 1. Michael Gale, Keystone (16:17.9); 2. Dillon Royster, Black River (16.56.8); 3. Connor Rhein, Black River (17:11.5); 4. Joe Fox, Wellington (17:21.9); 5. Nicholas Kosteci, Black River (17:32.8) GIRLS TEAM STANDINGS: 1. Wellington 58, 2. Oberlin 64, 3. Columbia 74, 4. Firelands 76, 5. Black River 103, 6. Brookside 125, 7. Keystone 194INDIVIDUALS: 1. Audrey Smith, Firelands (21:23.3); 2. Emma Palmer, Brookside (21:48.1); 3. Olivia Hudson, Oberlin (22:06.1); 4. Isabella Watters, Wellington (22:06.7); 5. Lauren VanNatter, Wellington (22:07.8)