Richland County runners gathered to kick start their season with the annual Richland County B-Dry cross country meet—the title of the event appropriately named as the temperature rose up to 80 degrees. The meet was held at Mansfield Senior High School and hosted Madison High School Cross Country team.
Despite the heat, the Lexington Minutemen snatched up first place for both the boys and girls teams. The overall scores for the boys’ varsity resulted in Lex in first place with 34 points, Shelby in second with 59 points, Crestview in third with 74 points, Plymouth in fourth with 93 points, and Madison in fifth with 142 points.
Lex junior, Zane Sturts, led the pack and clocked a first place finishing time of 17:22. Sturts mentioned that he wanted to keep tradition alive by helping the Lexington team earn its now 10th consecutive championship title at the Richland County invitational.
“It’s been tradition that a Lex guy wins it, so I didn’t want to break that,” said the junior, who is following in graduated Lexington senior, Nick Molnar’s, footsteps. Molnar placed first at the meet the previous year.
Sturts added that he ran into a bit of trouble when at the two mile mark he thought he was finishing and then realized he had one more mile to go. “But I was able to take the lead at that point,” he stated, “And luckily I could hold him off.” Sturts is referring to Ontario junior, Brett Cortelletti, whom Sturts mentioned: “We compete against each other a lot. He’s a really strong runner, a great guy. If I could lose to one person it would be him.”
Cortelletti finished in second place with the time of 17:54. Nick Stricklen of Lex earned third with 18:00, AJ Trent of Crestview earned fourth with 18:33, and David Yosizh of Shelby rounded out the top five finishers with 18:43.
Overall scores for the girls’ varsity are as follows: Lexington in first place with 21 points, Shelby in second place with 54 points, Plymouth in third place with 89 points, Crestview in fourth place with 117 points, and Ontario in fifth place with 131 points.
Lillian Freundlich of Lexington claimed the championship title for the girls’ varsity race with the time of 20:44. Last year in this event she earned third place, and now to be named champion, she is elated. “I was so nervous last night. I wanted to win at least one invite and knew this would be a great chance to get it. And I’m hoping to continue the trend throughout the season,” she said.
The senior’s number one goal for the season is to be the number one runner for the Lexington girls’ team. “I also want to be as high up on the podium as I can at state.” Last year at the State competition, Freundlich placed 13th with the time of 18:45.
Freundlich’s teammate, Susan Frain, wasn’t too far behind, finishing in second with 21:06. Sara Baker of Madison earned third with 21:13, Dominique Clairmonte, another Lex, earned fourth with 21:22, and Jordie Garrett of Shelby finished in fifth with 21:29.
Lexington head coach Denise Benson commented on what contributed to the teams’ victory.
“On the girls’ side, we’re coming off of second place in the state last year, so that’s a lot of excitement, and that success keeps momentum going. They’re very strong and we have some new freshmen talent. We lost three All-Ohioans last year, so that was a big loss, but we have some freshmen who are stepping it up. And on the boys’ side, it’s a rebuilding year, so they’re really a tight pack,” stated Benson.
Coach Benson hopes that the girls can defend their Ohio Cardinal Conference (OCC) championship title which they earned the previous season. “We would love to get on the podium again at State,” she added. The Lex girls placed runner-up last year at the State tournament.
The boys will have their work cut out for them as they compete in the OCC, hoping this year to claim the conference, after just missing it last year by one point. “It’s going to be very competitive, as it is every year between Ashland, Lex, Wooster and West Holmes. So we’ll all battle it out and see what happens there,” said Benson.
“We’re going to enjoy the journey and try to stay injury-free, and we’re just going to do what we can do,” she stated.
First place finisher Zane Sturts said of Ontario junior, Brett Cortelletti: “We compete against each other a lot. He’s a really strong runner, a great guy. If I could lose to one person it would be him.”
