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Gilmour girls capture cross-country regional
(by Steve Novak - October 29, 2008)
Gilmour girls capture cross-country regional
By STEVE NOVAK
For the fourth year in a row, the Gilmour girls' cross-country team is headed for the state championships after winning the Division III regional meet last Saturday.
Also heading to the state tournaments in Columbus will be the Solon boys' team, which finished second behind Mentor last Saturday in the Division I regional.
Gilmour's girls, who were paced by senior Melanie Frank's sixth-place finish in 20:21.81, won the regional with 64 points, finishing well ahead of second-place Berkshire's 123 points. The Badgers' state-qualifying performance was paced by third-place runner Alex Bowers, who finished in 19:46.46.
Also placing in the top 16 for the Lancers were junior Rebekka Simko, 10th in 20:29.46, and junior Patricia King, 13th in 20:32.16.
Gilmour coach Matt Lindley said he told his team not to worry about anything except trying to pass as many runners as possible. "I told them not to worry about their times," he said. "I just told them to beat everybody that they could. They run really well together. Melanie Frank and Rebekka Simko ran together just about the whole way, but Simko fell and lost a couple of spots when she got back up."
Going to the state finals has become a tradition for the upperclassmen on the Gilmour girls' team. Last year at the Division III state finals, the Gilmour girls finished second, only one point behind the winner, Versailles High School. In 2006, the Lancers won the Division III crown. In 2005, they placed third in the state.
Lindley said the fact that most of his team has already run at a state meet provides a mental advantage. "There's a very definite advantage. Some teams who have never been down there, they just get there and freeze," he said. "But our girls are used to that. They're just used to all that you get in a state competition."
In addition to the girls' team qualifying, one of the members of the Gilmour boys' team earned a trip to the state finals. All runners who finish among the top 16 in each regional advance to the state. For Gilmour, Bart Merkel finished ninth in Division III with a time of 16:48.12
Solon's boys, who finished with 96 points, just off Mentor's winning pace with 89 points in the Division I run, were paced by Jeremy Schiele, who took fourth in 16:12.88, and Connor Paez, who was ninth in 16:20.69.
University School's Jantzen earned an individual spot in the state Division II boys' tournament with a fourth-place regional finish at 16:15.91.
In the Division II girls' regional Chagrin Falls' Kirsten Stevenson placed eighth with a time of 19:37.96 to gain a trip to the state championships.
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