Eagles come on strong at end of season, place 13th in the state

After suffering through a season that was afflicted by a series of injuries, Avon’s boys cross country team pulled back together in the postseason, culminating with a 13th-place finish Saturday in the Division II state cross country meet at Fortress Obetz in Columbus. “It was a hard season,” said coach Matt Nortz. “I’m sure if people saw us at midseason, not too many would have expected us to be where we are today.” The Eagles narrowly grabbed one of the final qualifying berths last week at the regional meet, and as such, they were rated 23rd of 24 qualifying teams in the coaches poll that came out the week of the state meet. Undeterred, Avon performed much better than the poll predicted, scoring 334 to finish in the middle of the field. “I couldn’t have asked for more from them,” said Nortz. “They were ready. They were calm. They were cool. We treated it like it was any other race. They didn’t seem any more nervous. Actually, they were less nervous than districts and even regionals. You know, that’s the result when you can keep focused and not get nervous and just go out and run your race.” The Eagles were led by their lone senior, Jose Alvelo, who earned second team All-Ohio honors by placing 38th with a time of 16 minutes, 22.23 seconds. The top 24 finishers were named first team All-Ohio, while the next 24 made the second team. Alvelo, known for his foot speed as an 800-meter runner in track, put on a huge kick in the final stages of the race, falling as far back as about 70th place before blowing by several runners on his way to his All-Ohio finish. “Last week he was 100th and he worked his way up (to 22nd place),” said Nortz. “He did the same thing this week. I’m just so proud of him. He gave us great leadership all year. His positivity just spilled out over the whole team.” Alvelo was backed by Thompson (67th in 16:37.91), Matthew Lochbihler (119th in 17:03.73), Owen Burns (126th in 17:08.84), Jared Keressi (155th in 17:28.06), Blaise Wieber (169th in 17:37.04) and Dominic Gallo (182nd in 17:48.80). Thompson, Burns, Wieber and Gallo all set personal bests in the race, and Lochbihler tied his personal best.