BOARDMAN — Belief and courage can carry a runner or a team a long way — all the way to Columbus, in fact.

Mallory Kreider of Edgewood and the entire Perry team displayed a sizable amount of both in the Division II regional cross country meet at Boardman High School on Saturday. It led to them qualifying for the state meet next Saturday at Scioto Downs in Columbus.

“The postseason is all about the mental attitude,” Perry’s Abbie Clifford said. “We came here believing we’d go to state. (Believing) is a big reason we were fourth.

“Our motto has been, ‘The strength of the wolf is the pack.’ We showed today that if we stay together, we can accomplish anything.”

Kreider, battling the muddy conditions and sickness, ran herself to complete exhaustion to finish ninth.

“She’s definitely going to fight through the whole race no matter what happens,” Edgewood coach Steve Hill said. “She had to fight for her position just like anybody else. She kept fighting until the end just to see herself get another week.”

The Pirates placed four runners in the top 35 and five runners in the top 69 to place fourth with 130 points.

“Belief,” Perry coach Bill Sarvis said. “Heart, teamwork and dedication — because they have all of those things, they believed. Courage would be one B on that list.

“They ran with so much heart today. We talked about courage and heart. George Patton said they’re things you don’t know about, but they’re things that make people great.”

St. Vincent-St. Mary won the D-II race with 57 points. Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy was second with 73 points and Peninsula Woodridge was third with 109 points.

The top four teams and individuals in the top 16 not on a qualifying team in each of the three divisions will run at the state meet.

Kreider’s goal was to run with CVCA’s Christina Blair for as long as possible, and maybe put some space between the two of them, in the hope of winning the meet.

She ran right at Blair’s hip for three quarters of the race, before Blair started to pull away. Pushing as hard as she could to finish as strong as she could while falling back in the pack, Kreider found the strength to keep a large pack at bay and claim ninth place in 20:49.

“The gameplan was to eventually put a gap on her,” Hill said. “She was not feeling well. She had an upset stomach and some dizziness.”

“I just panicked,” Kreider said. “I’m just disappointed. I panicked. I just plan to be back next week.

“I’m thankful just to hang in the top 16. I just let it get in my head. I tried to do the best I could. I hope to be better next week. I learned that panicking doesn’t work for me. Next week, I hope to be back to my regular self.

“I was just trying to stay in the top 16. I knew girls were catching me. I just wanted to stay in there.”

The Pirates were buoyed by a third-place finish from Marissa Baranauskas and a fourth-place finish from Clifford.

“We got a total of seven points from two girls,” Sarvis said. “That was definitely a help. It was like (getting points for just) one girl. That was phenomenal. In that first pack, we had two girls. In the second pack, we had two girls and we had two girls in the pack after that. Then we had Angelica (Zampini).

“We wanted to run in packs. Today it was more like mini packs. That was really nice.”

Baranauskas and Clifford both finished in 20:29, just 25 seconds behind Blair, who won in 20:04.

“Marissa looked like she was gathering strength as she went along,” Sarvis said. “Abbie was going right along with her. It was like they were calling to each other to go together.”

“It hasn’t even sunk in yet,” Baranauskas said. “I’ve been working for this for four years. I still can’t believe it. It’s surreal. The whole team (going to state) means so much. I wouldn’t want to go alone.”

Following Baranauskas and Clifford for the Pirates were Ally Nelson (32nd, 22:10), Rachael Greuber (35th, 22:16), Ashley Adamik (69th, 23:04), Kristin Ludwick (72nd, 23:16) and Zampini (104th, 24:42).

“Geez!” Sarvis said. “Everyone ran their hearts out. God bless them. It’s nice to have a dream and live it.

“The gameplan unfolded the way we hoped. We hope next week we’ll be a little tighter with our five, six and seven and we’ll have some more success.”

Having runners on the course together was the goal for the Pirates. As the race played out, it looked more and more as if the Pirates were pushing and pulling each other to the team’s ultimate goal.

“They were communicating,” Sarvis said. “They were saying, ‘Come on, let’s go!’ I’d like to think that reflects their relationships off the course. I’d like to say that’s important.”

“We practice together every day,” Clifford said. “I think it’s natural that we push each other during a race. We help each other.”

“That helps so much,” Baranauskas said. “We were talking back and forth. It makes it easier to have someone next to you that’s a teammate.”

The Warriors’ Juliana Simmons finished 24th in 21:44.

“She definitely ran a great race today,” Hill said. “I don’t think any of the predictions we had predicted her to finish as high as she did. She exceeded all of the predictions. She’s a sophomore. She ran an excellent race and gave herself a shot (to advance).

“She put herself in position and fought to the end. She ran a great race.”

“My time didn’t really matter,” Simmons said. “I felt I ran pretty good.”

For Geneva’s Alyssa Nieset and Conneaut’s Jennifer Oxley, both sophomores, the meet was a valuable learning experience.

“I’m happy,” Conneaut coach Jim Rehmer said of Oxley. “It was a good experience for her. She knows what she has to do to get even further next year.

“With the caliber of competition, she learned what it takes to get to the top. It takes a lot of work and you have to do it year-round, not just for three or four months and wait until next year.”

“She’s a sophomore,” Geneva coach Walt Lininger said of Nieset. “Her goal was to just go out and have fun. She had to get rid of the nerves. Today was more about getting experience for the future. The whole morning she was a bundle of nerves.

“I told her to have fun, there was no pressure and to enjoy the day.”

Nieset finished 73rd in 23:24 and Oxley came in 81st at 23:40.

“It was not so good,” Oxley said. “I just don’t know why. I just know that I’m only a sophomore and I got here so soon.”

“Coach told me to just go out and have fun, so I did,” Nieset said. “It really is competitive out here. Everyone is focused on state. I was just out here to run a race. I was just happy to make the regional.”

The other area team in the race, Jefferson, finished 15th with 420 points.

“I don’t think we ran well,” Falcons coach Gary Thaxton said. “I think they were a little disappointed, too. Collectively, the team didn’t run real well.”

Hannah Francis paced the Falcons, finishing 42nd in 22:31. She was followed by Sam Morford (93rd, 24:00), Brook Orvos (100th, 24:34), Joelle Eskelin (115th, 25:54), Summer Pacholke (118th, 26:51), Dayna Stevens (119th, 26:55) and Clara Hawkins (120th, 27:47).

In the Division III race, Pymatuning Valley’s Ami Turner placed 78th in 24:08 while battling a bad hip.

“Her hip was quite sore this week,” Lakers coach Shauna Bryan said. “Icing it seemed to help, but it didn’t make it go away. You have to make do with what your body gives you or not try. I talked to her and not trying was not an option.

“Starts tend to bother her and combine that with an uphill straightaway to start. A (muddy) course like this doesn’t help. These were the worst kind of conditions to have and run with that injury.”

“My hip was bothering me,” Turner said. “I’m not as happy as I could be.

“I was really, really nervous. I knew a lot of the people here. Obviously, it was the best of the best that made it here. You’ve got to be good.”