Mogadore girls cross-country finishes seventh in Division III

Making their state debut as a team, the Wildcats girls finished seventh in the Division III cross-country championship race at Fortress Obetz.

Coming off last week's regional title, Mogadore was once again the top team out of the Boardman Region, and easily finished in the top half of the 20 programs that qualified their entire teams for state.

In a tight battle for the sixth, seventh and eighth spots, the Wildcats finished four points behind Madeira and a single point ahead of Patrick Henry.

"[I'm] just very impressed with them," Mogadore coach Diana Morris said. "I love how they just really do like their chant says: 'We run it together.' We always end it with that [chant] and they've learned what it means to run like that."

Team was the theme Saturday for a Wildcats program that had sent talented individuals to state in previous years but never an entire squad.

Two years ago, Katie Lane was Mogadore's lone runner at state as a freshman.

Last season, Lane had company as Rachel Whetstone joined her.

Having the whole team run at Fortress Obetz was so much better, everyone seemed to agree.

"It was just absolutely amazing having everyone with me at states," said Whetstone, a senior. "I was looking left to right at that line. There were a hundred and something runners here, and I was like, 'Well, I got six of them with me and that's my team.'"

And there was comfort in numbers for the five Wildcats runners making their state debuts Saturday.

"It was nice having the whole team," Mogadore freshman Alana Santiago said. "It was just [Katie and Rachel] the past year, so it was nice having a sea of green to run with, because it would be intimidating being by yourself or with only one other person."

The always consistent Lane led the Wildcats Saturday, finishing 15th/28th in 19:40.7. The three-time state qualifier has now run in the mid-19-minute range in all three of her state appearances.

"It was rough," Lane said of a race that was marked by unusual heat for this time of year and high winds. "I think everyone can agree that it was hard. We all pushed. Our legs were shaking."

Whetstone was next across the line, finishing 24th/42nd with a 20:01.1, a massive improvement from her state debut a year ago. Shaving nearly 40 seconds off her time from last year, Whetstone improved 52 places from a season ago, from 94th to 42nd. Whetstone also rose throughout Saturday's race as she was 60th at the mile mark and 57th at the two-mile mark before surging late.

"She had an amazing course run," Morris said. "She was probably the most impressive with her time there."

The rest of the Wildcats' runners were all making their state debuts, with sisters Mia and Kai Gaetjens next across the line, finishing 58th/98th and 62nd/103rd, respectively, with times of 21:14.3 and 21:27.9, and sophomore Emma Quillen taking 72nd/114th with a 21:38.0.

"Push together as a pack," Quillen said. "Like Katie and Rachel, they work really well together, and me and Mia and Kai, [we're] trying to get those packs to work together, because if you've ever heard of this analogy of horses, one can pull a lot, but whenever two are pulling, they can pull more than double."

Sophomore Julie Tompkins (86th/129th, 22:07.0) and Santiago (100th/143rd, 22:27.8) added a valuable cushion for Mogadore Saturday, should one of its five scorers stumble.

With six of those seven runners returning next year, the future for the Wildcats is bright, with siblings Mia and Kai Gaetjens already thinking about their offseason training.

Per the freshman Kai, "Next year will be really fun because I'm going to work harder at practice."

"I'm going to be working harder to stay ahead of you," Mia replied.

Per Kai, "[The] sibling rivalry will make us go even faster."

And while six of seven Wildcats who raced at Fortress Obetz Saturday are expected to return, Whetstone reflected on "the best teammates I've ever had." A little teary-eyed after the race, the senior said she was thrilled to know that she is leaving a program that meant so much to her in great shape.

"I'm so proud of everybody," Whetstone said. "We did so well. We were seventh in the state today and last year we were fifth in the region, so looking back at those results, that is absolutely amazing and we are growing as a team, and next year, we're going to be even better. I'm not going to be here. You guys are going to be amazing. The tradition is going to carry on."

Zachary Vales battles cramps to finish last state race

The adversity started before Saturday's race for Zachary Vales.

The Streetsboro senior and his coach, Jon Hannan, were caught in intense traffic entering the stadium, forcing them to abandon the car driven by Vales' parents, while they found parking, so Vales would at least have some time to warm up.

Then, after Vales' warm-up run, he felt a cramp.

The senior battled through it, finishing 171st in Division II in 18:59.7.

(To show how fast Vales is when healthy, he took 30th in 16:34.6 as a sophomore making his state debut.)

"He went out on a warm-up run, was feeling fine and then he was doing some plyos right before the start of the race and he just said, 'You know, I got a little bit of a cramp, I don't know what's going on,' and it was like five minutes before the race, so there's not much we could do at that point," Hannan said. "So I just told him to leave it all out there, it's your last race as a Rocket, and that's what he did."

As Hannan indicated, Vales didn't hesitate despite the cramp.

In fact, he came out with a stellar first mile (5:04.2) that had him sitting 39th.

Unfortunately, the cramp only got worse as the race went on.

"He was able to push through it and he was 39th at the mile," Hannan said. "[He] was looking pretty good, and then came through at the two mile and just looked at me and said he couldn't push himself, so that's where he dropped a lot of places there in the two mile, but I was just telling him, 'Hey, just finish the race at that point.'"

After the race, Hannan noted that one cramp doesn't define a career.

Indeed, Vales finishes his cross-country career as one of the most successful runners in school history.

Moreover, the senior battled back from an appendectomy during the middle of last season to become the first two-time state qualifier in modern program history.

"It obviously wasn't the result he was hoping for [Saturday], but just the fact that he's there is very impressive," Hannan said. "A lot of kids would kill for the opportunity to just even run there and that's what he was able to do."

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Mogadore girls cross-country finishes seventh in Division III