XC runners off to impressive starts

By Carol McIntire
Editor
Area cross country runners found success at the Mark Albaugh Early Bird Invitational Aug. 24 at Claymont High School.
The Sandy Valley girls won the small school girls team race, Carrollton senior Ricky Sibila captured the top spot in the large school boys race, the Carrollton girls team placed third in the large school girls race, the boys team fourth and several runners earned individual medals.
Sibila (16:09) put 14 seconds between himself and second place runner, Luca Novakovic 16:25) of Northwest for the win and paced the Carrollton boys team to a fourth-place finish in the field of 10 teams. John Childs was Carrollton’s second runner to finish in 15th (18:17) followed by Carter Ash 28th (19:25), Grant Thompson 34th (19:44), Turner Eddy 43rd (20:28) and Landyn Wade Perkins 45th (20:30).
Sibila’s time moves him into third place as the fastest cross country runner in Carrollton school history, according to Coach Nancy Boley.
Northwest won the team title with 43 points. Indian Valley was second at 71 followed by Canton South 79 and Carrollton 115.
Led by Casey Russell, the Lady Cardinals topped a field of nine teams for the title. Russell finished second in 19:34, followed by Evelyn Pfeffer, 4th (20:39), MiKayla Palmer 21st (24:26), Peyton Nicholson 23rd (24:33), and McKenna Burk 41st (27:11).
Malvern sophomore Emma Maher placed 15th individually in the small school girls race to earn a medal. Senior Leah Irvine ran a personal best time to place 49th and earn a medal.
Carrollton Junior Kylie Ujcich placed second in the large school girls race with a time of 20:21 behind Louisville’s Kylah Meyer who clocked a time of 19:50.
All seven Carrollton runners earned medals. Finishers included Norah Kerr-Jung 17th (23:35), Gabi McCort 20th (23:42), Ava Kail 22nd (23:46), Olivia McCort 23rd (23:48), Ella Barkan 32nd (24:37) and Zoe Kuhn-Goodspeed 35th (25:08).
Louisville won the nine-team race with 52 points, followed by Meadowbrook 55 and Carrollton 84.
Sandy Valley placed fourth in the small school boys race and Malvern seventh.
Isaac Overly (19:04) led the Cardinals with a 26th place finish while Dalton Pennington (18:02) paced Malvern with a 13th place finish, a new personal best mark.
Other Cardinal runners included Tyler Burk 31st, Tucker Moll 32nd, Ben Gibson 50th and Ozias Sarver 53rd. For Malvern, Cooper Dorr finished 23rd, Noah White 44th, Jacob McClelland 68th and Ethan Grossi 71st.
“What a great way to start the cross country season!” said Malvern Coach Jeremy Maher. “For us to have the success we did earlier in the week and follow it up with huge success and PR’s today was amazing!

Junior high race
Olivia Maher placed 12th in the girls race for Malvern. Carrollton had three runners in the junior high boys race, led by Carson Murphy in seventh place.
East Canton
Invitational
The Hornet boys placed second as a team at the East Canton Invitational Aug. 15 in blistering heat.
Five runners placed in the top 25, led by Pennington in 9th with a time of 19:39.4. Dorr placed 11th (19:53.9) followed by White 14th (20:53.1), McClelland 18th (21:38.5) and Grossi 22nd (22:25.9).
Maher paced the girls squad with an eighth-place finish in 23:40.3 followed by Irvine 19th (29:39.5), Mya Doughty 20th (29.24.4), Theiss 30th (33:22.8) and Buchman 33rd (34:30).
In the junior high race, Olivia Maher clocked a time of 15:23.3 to place sixth in a field of 44 runners and Rachael Plesia placed 29th.
“Everyone did an awesome job of getting through the brutal heat,” said Coach Maher. “This group is motivated and works hard. For us to have five athletes in the top 20 in the girls and boys race and a jr. high athlete place in the top 10 is a huge accomplishment. The boys team really took a step toward identifying their full potential, by placing second overall. We are very excited to see where both teams will end up at the end of the year.”