Wind swept
But for Emily Molnar and the rest of the Lady Knights cross country team it might have been the socks, as the West Holmes sophomore held off 2010 State runner-up Ellen Isaac, on Isaac’s home course, to win the Ohio Cardinal Conference (OCC) championship race, at Lexington High School, on Saturday, Oct. 15, becoming the 2011 OCC Runner of the Year.
“Our senior, Nichole Peterman, decided we were going to be different and wear high black socks,” explained Molnar, who cut through gale force winds to come across the finish line at the 20:24 mark – just seven months removed from knee surgery to repair a torn ACL, MCL and meniscus in her right knee, which buckled and gave way during the Lady Knights final basketball game of the 2010-11 campaign, back in March – besting the Lady Lex junior by a full 13 seconds, even after being passed by Isaac during the second mile. “Maybe they’re good luck socks.”
Or maybe Molnar’s just a phenomenal runner.
“She did a great job,” explained fourth-year West Holmes head coach Kevin Beachy. “She adjusted when Ellen caught her there in the second mile. I said, ‘Stay with her, on her back, stay on her tail and let her do all the work and block the wind,’ and she did the right thing.
“When [Isaac] slowed down Emily went around her and that’s exactly what she was supposed to do. Emily’s a strong girl and she’s been lifting a lot and she muscled through the wind.”
That part was news to Molnar, however, as she said, “It was awful. Every time you go around a turn the breath is taken out of you.
“I couldn’t feel it if it was there,” she added with a laugh, talking about the portions of the course where the wind might have been at her back.
But her teammate used the windy conditions to her advantage as fellow sophomore Alexis Eliot finished 11th (21:51) in the field of 41 runners to earn second-team All-Conference honors.
“I try to adjust with the wind,” she explained. “So if it’s at your back you try to make yourself bigger and if it’s coming toward you, make yourself smaller. I wish the wind wasn’t there but wishing won’t take it away, you’ve just got to deal with it.
“[Watching Emily] it makes me push myself and it makes me so proud of her. I’m so happy for her.”
“I couldn’t even imagine [coming in first],” said Molnar after watching Peterman earn third-team All-OCC recognition with a 21st place finish (22:56), which helped the Lady Knights finish fourth as a team (83 points) – Alexis Kandel (26th, 23:35), Miranda Hostettler (32nd, 25:34), Makayla Patterson (33rd, 26:02) and Felicia Schlabach (35th, 26:12) rounded out the scoring for West Holmes – behind Lexington (37), Ashland (46) and Wooster (66), but ahead of Madison (144), as Lady Lex claimed its third-straight team title, and fourth in five years. “There’s so many good girls in our conference. I was thinking top-three, I never thought I would win it.”
But West Holmes junior and 2010 State qualifier Cully Gordon had his eyes set on a championship in the boys race before the opening gun even sounded.
“I was kind of hoping to [win] all along,” explained Gordon, who got out in front early and held his lead throughout the entire course, sprinting to the finish line one second ahead (17:08) of the ironically named Nick Molnar of Lexington (17:09), to capture Runner of the Year honors on the boys side. “If someone went out faster than me I would have tried to stay right behind them so they could block the wind from me, but after a while I kind of broke free and held it.
“I went out harder than I usually would and all along the way people kept telling me how far back they were, and I knew I had to have at least some distance by the time I got to this finish area on the last lap. I didn’t think I could outsprint any of them, so I figured I needed to have some sort of a lead rather than sprint at the end.”
It still came down to the sprint at the end, however, as Molnar shifted to another gear over the last 100 yards, in an attempt to close the gap, but Gordon found his own extra gear and held on for the win.
“I knew someone was coming,” said Gordon, as three other Lexington runners – Dan Asbury (third), Jacob Shramko (sixth), and Josh Fourhman (10th) – finished in the top-10 to give the Minutemen (41 points) their fourth team title in four years, finishing ahead of 2010 champion Ashland (48), Wooster (52), West Holmes (92), Madison (161), Orrville (162) and Mansfield Senior (208) for the championship. “That made me go a lot faster because I didn’t want to give it up.”
“There’s no such thing as bad weather, just soft people,” said Beachy, who watched Knights sophomore Sam Boyd finish 14th (18:00) to capture second-team All-Conference honors, while the Knights regular number two and three runners – Drew Alexander and Tim Young – both cautiously continued to nurse hamstring injuries. “And he [Gordon] was definitely not soft today. He went out and set the pace and executed well. He definitely needed every stride he took. We’ve been working a little on speed but Cully’s a true distance runner.
“That was exciting,” added Beachy, as Seth Morrison (24th, 18:33), Devan Didinger (26th, 19:05), Nate Ewing (27th, 19:08), Matt Stonebrook (29th, 19:34) and Matt Miller (32nd, 19:42) rounded out the field for the Knights. “I was a little worried because I knew they had a lot of speed and last year Cully got outsprinted at the line, but he came out this year and he attacked the hills and when it was time to go he went. It was a good race and now it’s time to look forward to Districts.
“I held my two and three runners out because they’ve both been dealing with hamstring issues. They could have run here, but there’s no advancement from here, you advance from Districts, so why not wait a week?”
After tweaking his hamstring while setting his season PR (17:56) at the Tiffin Invite, back on Sept. 10, Young is itching to return to the Knights lineup for the District meet, Saturday, Oct. 22 at Cambridge High School.
“I’m more of a surprise for Districts and Regionals,” explained the West Holmes junior who set his career PR (17:18) at the Cambridge District race a year ago. “I feel a lot better. But it’s been tough not running considering I was planning to go sub-17:00 by the end of the year and I was hoping to get somewhere near 16:00 so I could place at Regionals.”
But in order to reach that point, the Knights and Lady Knights will have to repeat their record-setting performances from a year ago at the Cambridge District meet, something the senior, Stonebrook, said is definitely possible, while breaking the sport down to its simplest terms.
“We’re the favorites to win,” he explained. “It’s about placing as a team. We try to stay together for as long as we can and run fast.”
Because while high black socks are definitely a different look, ultimately running fast is what wins championships.
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The future of the West Holmes cross country program looks like it will continue to be bright on both the girls and boys sides, as three junior high school girls finished in the top 10 of the OCC Junior High School race at Lexington on Saturday, while three boys finished in the top 12.
In the girls race, Hannah Schlegel finished third, (13:10), Michelle Hostettler fifth (13:40), and Katy Vaccariello seventh (13:58).
For the boys, Vinny DeFelice took third (12:36), Cole Guerra finished ninth (13:06), and Matt Gardner crossed the line in 12th place (13:22).