LAKOTA – The Fremont Ross cross country teams know what they have at the front of the pack. It’s shortening the gaps between the top of the lineup and the next four runners to cross the finish line that the Little and Lady Giant runners are focusing on.
Zach Edmonds
Ethan McClory
Setting the pace for Ross – and all the day’s runner for that matter – were juniors Ethan McClory and MeKela Elder, both of whom finished first in their respective races. The boys team won its competition, finishing first out of four teams with 21 points, while the girls were second out of five teams, finishing just one point behind Clyde’s first-place total of 43.
“It wasn’t a very competitive meet, we’ve been in more competitive meets, but the times were awesome,” coach John Elder said. “That’s what we wanted to use today for.”
McClory won the boys race with a time of 16 minutes, 32.34 seconds. Finishing about 30 seconds later, coming in second overall, was Ross’ Zach Edmonds with a time of 17:04.14. The Little Giants had five runners finish in the top 10 overall, as Brayden Darr (fifth, 18:11.23), Isaias Ortiz (eighth, 18:27.67) and Noh Egbert (10th, 18:47.68) lifted the Little Giants to a 30-point victory over second-place Oak Harbor.
“The general rule was to stay with Ethan for as long as possible because we want to get the back three kids of our top five, they have to get into the 17s and they’re getting closer and closer,” John Elder said.
“Ethan ran really well, I didn’t expect him to run this well today with the heat,” he added. “Zach Edmonds is almost ready to run in the 16s, based on today That was a great race.”
Allison Taylor
McKela Elder
Elder is hoping his second- through fifth-place runners can close their gap behind McClory to a minute or less. Work still remains to be done on that front, but the Little Giants are making progress.
“We’re getting there,” Elder said. “It’s coming.”
Saturday marked the fourth-straight year Ross finished first in the boys race, as Matt Kuyken won the event the previous three years.
McKela Elder defended her championship in the Invite, having finished first at the Myron Cline last year. Saturday she turned in a time of 20:03.36, just shy of achieving her goal of breaking 20 minutes. Making her run Saturday all the more impressive was it came as she held the lead by herself, from start to finish, meaning she had no one to push her to the end.
“She was by herself the whole race and that’s really hard to do,” John Elder said, “so to run like she did, at 12:30 in the afternoon, I thought was pretty darn good.”
Several of the Lady Giants’ experienced runners have been battling injuries this season, which partly explains three of Ross’ next four finishers being first-year runners.
Freshman Allison placed fourth overall in 22:44, while senior AnneMarie Moses, a first-year runner also playing volleyball this fall, finished eighth in a time of 24:06 and freshman McKenna Englund was 12 th overall in 24:26. Sophomore Nadia Kirksey rounded out the scoring as she was the fifth runner to cross the line for Ross, coming in at 25:01, for 19th place.
“The girls improved today,” John Elder said. “They got beat by one point, so everybody except MeKela can look at the results and say ‘If I would have beaten one person…’ but that’s all right. Now I hope it gives them some motivation.”
While the boys team has trimmed its first-through-fifth gap to two minutes, the girls are still hovering in the five-minute range.
“We need to close that gap,” Elder said. “The boys are close to doing it, the girls are at a five-minute gap. We have to close that down…. I’m still optimistic but time is growing shorter.”
One way Elder hopes to get his girls’ times down is for them to stay closer to Taylor through the race. That and by getting and staying healthy.
“(Because of injuries) today, I felt, was the first day where the girls could actually talk about a strategy to run,” Elder said. “Our goal is try to keep with Allison and lot of them did stay with Allison for the first couple miles then they dropped off. We need them to stay up with Allison.”
Myron Cline Invitational hosted by Lakota High School
BOYS RESULTS:
Team scores: 1. Fremont Ross, 21 points; 2. Oak Harbor, 51; 3. Clyde, 77; 4. Fostoria, 98.
INDIVIDUAL RESULTS:
1. Ethan McClory, 16:32.34
2. Zach Edmonds, 17:04.14
5. Brayden Darr, 18:11.23
8. Isaias Ortiz, 18:27.67
10. Noah Egbert, 18:47.68
11. Jayden Scott, 19:19.07
12. Zach McNutt, 19:25.72
13. Evan Starkweather, 19:26.84
16. Ivan Starkweather, 19:33.19
18. Jake Thompson, 19:37.13
21. Kavon Martin, 19:49.26
28. Trenton Ward, 20:45.96
34. Zach Glotzbecker, 21:23.29
50. Roman Contreras, 25:24.07
57. Aiden Cheek, 32:03.56
GIRLS RESULTS:
Team scores: 1. Clyde, 43; 2. Fremont Ross, 44; 3. Oak Harbor, 50. 4. Lake 101; 5. Fostoria, 124.
INDIVIDUAL RESULTS:
1. McKela Elder 20:03.36
4. Allison Taylor, 44.89
8. AnneMarie Moses, 24:06.26
12. McKenna Englund, 24:26.16
19. Nadia Kirksey, 25:01.14
20. Grace Egbert, 25:05.17
23. Kayla Glotzbecker, 25:19.36
24. Ashanti Elkins, 25:40.06
30. Bryanna Schermerhorn, 28:45.83
31. Madalyn Metcalf, 29:00.85
33. Kiera Swaisgood, 29:41.22
37. Mara Brown, 32:22.60
42. Aileana Jones, 11:54.3 36:59.25
44. Hailey Young, 12:21.3 38:22.89