Cross country teams open season at HOKA Night Showcase

The Avon boys and girls varsity cross country teams opened their seasons in fine fashion Saturday night at the HOKA Night Showcase at Spire Academy in Geneva.

While four seniors graduated from last year’s girls team that placed third in the state in Division I, the Eagles showed they will again be a force to be reckoned with this season, placing fourth out of 43 teams in the Showcase Division with 208 points. The only team from Ohio to finish ahead of Avon was Aurora, which was third with 166 points.

“I am very happy with today’s performance and the pack running that this team continues to embrace,” said coach Justin Carroll. “The first meet is just about getting back into the racing groove and routine and the feel of a 5K. This meet always has some impressive teams throughout all races, both from Ohio and out of Ohio and allows us to see where we land early on. But knowing it’s a step forward to the bigger picture and I feel this was a solid step.”

The Eagles were led by senior Ava Melott, who placed 26th with a time of 19 minutes, 24.47 seconds over the lighted 5,000-meter course. Avon’s tight pack came into play with the rest of the scoring five, as Brooke Tindera (47th in 20:01.81), Molly Suter (49th in 20:05.15), Madison Colaizzi (50th in 20:06.94) and Molly Pomfrey (51st in 20:07.36) finished within less than 6 seconds of each other. The gap for the top five finishers was less than 43 seconds.

The top seven was rounded out by Lauren Kershaw (83rd in 20:36.95) and Lauryn Hider (88th in 20:42.79), giving the Eagles a gap of less than 41 seconds from the second runner to the seventh. In all, there were 394 finishers in the race.

Avon’s boys return most of last year’s team that was 13th in the state in Division II and the Eagles placed in the middle of the pack in the Showcase Division, finishing 20th of 48 teams with 584 points.

Avon was led by Blaise Wieber in 88th place with a time of 17:10.49. He was backed by Nick Thompson (99th in 17:15.74), Matthew Lochbihler (126th in 17:27.25), Caden Matthews (131st in 17:29.42) and Luke Fox (163rd in 17:48.44) in the scoring five. That’s a gap of about 38 seconds for the top five. Timothy Gardner (225th in 18:16.05) and Jackson Bratton (268th in 18:40.15) completed the top seven for the Eagles.

Next on the schedule for Avon’s girls is the Hot Summer Bash Saturday at Hilliard Davidson, while the boys will be competing in the Avon Lake Earlybird Invitational at Lorain County Community College.