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McDonald runners back on top

Tribune Chronicle / John Vargo McDonald’s Sela Ward, left, and Bellka Wolfrod battle down the stretch Saturday at the Division III cross country district meet at the Trumbull County Fairgrounds.

BAZETTA — Lou Domitrovich sat on his white mountain bike, leaning it near the finish line.

The McDonald boys track and field coach said his enlarged tires made his ride smooth around the Trumbull County Fairgrounds.

His son, Ethan, whose third-place finish led the Blue Devils boys cross country team to its first Division III district title since 2011, said its fun to see his father around the course.

McDonald boys cross country coach Chris Rupe sees his son, Brody, as part of the team which held off Maplewood.

Both coaches obviously feel pride in their own flesh and blood running, but wearing the blue and yellow M means even more. The runners wore new Adidas uniforms, proudly displaying the Blue Devil pride.

“It’s fun to have our kids be part of it,” Chris Rupe said. “Honestly, through the years, I think we’ve adopted all these guys as our own in a lot of ways. It has, to a certain extent, felt like they’re all our kids.

“I hope it always feels that way.”

Girls coach Mike Richards, who saw his team win the district title over Maplewood, had sophomores Anna Guerra, Bella Wolford and Sela Jones finish fifth through seventh. Wolford and Jones came across the line together — the two separated by four-hundredths of a second.

The Blue Devils won a recent state title by the efforts of a sixth runner. The top five runners from each team amass points from their team finishes.

“Part of me is why are you pushing that hard right now?” Richards said. “That’s OK. I told them every point matters. We talked about 2014 with one point. They hear that all the time, even on a day like today when no one is with them.”

It’s just something the two do.

“Whenever we get together in a race, it’s always a good push forward,” Wolford said.

“We’re both really competitive,” Jones said. “When you put us together it’s a face off, even though the points will be the same.”

In workouts through Woodland Park and around the streets of McDonald, you can see the deep and dedicated Blue Devils runners.

They’ve even seen runners like seniors Claire Hoffman and Alyssa Lynch battle for the fifth spot, improving their times.

“They push and it’s a chain reaction all the way through,” Wolford said.

Malina Mitchell pushed through a sore leg to finish first, ahead of Badger’s Miranda Stanhope.

Mitchell’s running is contained to an elliptical and races, in addition to a few speed workouts.

Richards said once Mitchell starts running, the pain in her leg subsides.

“We’re hoping to get five more runs out of her in the next two weeks,” Richards said.

For the boys, they got back their leader, junior Carson Fortune. Illness has held him out the past couple of weeks.

Coming back for district, the timing couldn’t be better.

“He brings a lot of good energy to the team, seeing him happy, in a good mood, rather than as he was a little while ago definitely helps a lot,” Ethan Domitrovich said.

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