Eagle Girls Cross Country take second in strong field at Medina

Throughout this cross country season, Avon’s girls team has used a tried and true formula to become one of the top Division I teams in the state: Kaitlyn Reese finishes at or near the top to get a low number, and then the rest of the team runs in a tight pack. Saturday in the Division I/II race at the Milt Place Distance Festival in Medina, the Eagles used a slightly different tactic, as Reese took the day off from racing, opting instead to go on a training run. The Michigan State commit is expected to be among a handful of runners vying for the Division I individual state title. “Her goal is for the postseason,” said coach Justin Carroll. “We just felt that resting her as far as racing and having her do a long run today was just part of her training plan. It gives the other girls an opportunity to see what they can do without her.” The other girls actually one-upped themselves, as they had the tightest pack of the season to score 122 points and place second behind Wadsworth, which is ranked third in the state in Division II. The Grizzlies scored 100 points to take the title. Also in the field were Massillon Jackson (No. 14 in Division I) and Medina (No. 10 in Division I). Those teams both scored 133 points, but Jackson took third based on a tiebreaker. “Going into this, we already knew that Wadsworth is always a good team, along with Medina, and so on,” said Carroll. “We just wanted to see what they could do. Just like many teams, the last few weeks we’ve really been getting after it, and we still have some work to do. But we can take the good from today and know that they’re working hard both in training and in races, and they are competing with some great teams, not just locally, but in the state.” The Eagles, who are ranked fourth in the state in Division I, have had great success this season using their racing formula, as neither Reese nor the team has ever finished worse than third in any race this year. Reese won titles at Riverside and Wooster, and the Eagles won at Wooster and Olentangy Berlin. But what do you do when your leader is not racing? Well, you make the pack even tighter. In the absence of Reese, fellow senior Jessica Pendleton took the mantle of being the No. 1 runner for Avon. She finished 14th in 19 minutes, 47.37 seconds over the 5,000-meter course. “I just felt like I had enough strength in me to take the lead and keep pushing up there,” she said. “And I knew that if I stepped forward, maybe some of my teammates would follow suit.” Sure enough, Olivia Pajak placed 21st in 20:02.41, followed closely by Julianna Stein (28th in 20:10.81), Molly Suter (29th in 20:11.86), Ava Melott (30th in 20:12.76), and Madison Colaizzi (32nd in 20:13.00). In addition, Molly Pomfrey was 59th in 21:06.72, and freshman Brooklyn Fagan was 67th in 21:16.14. For those keeping track, that’s a split of 26 seconds from runners 1-5, 11 seconds from runners 2-6, and just over 2 seconds from runners 3-6. “We’ve been really focused on pack running, especially in our workouts, and then translating that work into our races,” said Pendleton. “It’s really great to know that we’re all of the same mind and on the same page mentally to stick with each other and push each other competitively.” Next on the schedule for the Eagles is the Southwestern Conference meet Saturday at Lorain County Community College.