By KARL E. PEARSON - kpearson@starbeacon.com
Staff Writer
PERRY TOWNSHIP —
Perry’s Abbie Clifford continued her sizzling pace at Saturday’s Mentor Invitational, but the Pirate girls could only manage a sixth-place finish in the meet. Meanwhile, the Perry boys matched that performance in their portion of the meet.
Clifford won a highly competitive race with Solon’s Therese Haiss, finishing in 19:37.26 to the latter’s 19:42.56. That helped the Perry girls finish with 130 points, well behind Mentor with 36 points. Edgewood’s girls were eighth with 216 points.
Perry’s boys had 164 points in their portion of the meet. That followed Mentor, which won with only 31 points. Edgewood was seventh with 168 points.
Following Clifford for the Perry girls was Jackie Tenney in 23rd place in 21:47.5, Angelica Zampini in 26th place in 21:56.00, Ashley Adamik in 38th place in 22:45.13 and Mary Wills in 42nd place in 23:27.70.
Juliana Simmons was the top finisher for the Edgewood girls with a 14th place in 21:10.02. Sage Verdi was 48th in 24:41.30, Kris Sharp was 52nd in 27:29.82, Allee Coates finished 53rd in 27:52.44 and Katherine West was 54th in 28:31.68.
Topping the Perry boys was Josh Shoup in 25th place in 18:09.39. Jared Champion was 32nd in 18:39.99, Chris Jordan was 33rd in 18:44.37, Ian Cowling placed 35th in 18:53.41 and Alex Guthrie was 39th in 19:09.87.
Derryn Tomsic paced the Edgewood boys in 14th place in 17:24.21. Phillip Scheanon was 28th in 18:25.97, Nate Spickler was 29th in 18:35.72, Ben Wyand finished 47th in 20:26.36 and Eric Riesterer was 50th in 20:42.77.
JV
Perry’s boys were fourth in the team race with 100 points. Mentor won with just 21 points.
Blaine Luszcak led the Pirates with a 15th-place finish in 19:41.13. Zack Sitz was 19th in 20:03.54, Chris Wills was 20th in 20:14.69, David Mrosko was 21st in 20:24.50 and Barton Dahneke was 27th in 21:48.23.
Open
Perry had four girls compete in the open race. Diana Drain was 15th in 25:01.18, Lilly Hedrich was 23rd in 25:25.85, Emily Maffit was 26th in 25:30.74 and Sara Kerestman was 39th in 26:12.62.
Middle school
Madison’s girls finished fourth in the division with 114 points to 48 for Brecksville. Braden was seventh with 191 points. Perry had only two runners and did not finish with a team score.
Rachel Baird was the top finisher for Madison by placing fifth and covering the 3200-meter course in 13:20.15. Chanel Crawford was 18th in 14:12.84, Sydney Ball was 26th in 14:44.77, Macenna Hanzak was 30th in 14:50.76 and Julie Bruening was 35th in 15:11.42.
Savannah Spring led Braden’s girls with a 21st place in 14:23.92. Rebekah Simmons was 37th in 15:19.58, Angel Newman was 45th in 15:39.44, Krista Severe was 55th in 16:02.97 and Kelly Legere was 75th in 17:17.98.
Mackenzie Fath was the top finisher for the Perry girls in 40th place in 15:30.47. Marissa Sell was 54th in 15:58.94.
Braden’s boys were sixth in team race with 135 points to 75 for champion North Olmsted. Perry was seventh with 182 points and Madison was eighth with 199 points.
No times for the boys were available, but Noah Morgan was 18th for Braden. Philip Sarbiewski finished 26th, Josh Lemay was 28th, Brad McGirr was 29th and Chris Lemay was 35th.
Dustin Gilbert led Perry with a second-place finish. Erik Pritschau was third, Grant Harris was 70th, Brandon Bryan was 74th and Kyle Brown was 82nd.
Brian Brickman was Madison’s top finisher in 15th place. Orry Corrigan was 16th, Peter Otterman was 53rd, Travis Fairman was 79th and Blaine Hartley was 81st.
