High School Sports

Howland girls, McDonald boys repeat

CANFIELD -- The Howland girls cross country team took the top three spots and all five of its runners were among the top nine finishers as the Tigers ran away with the team title during the Suburban League championships Wednesday at the Canfield Fairgrounds.

The Tigers totaled 22 points to easily outdistance runner-up Boardman (85), with Maplewood (112), Lakeview (123) and Canfield (131) rounding out the top five.

In the boys race, McDonald paced itself to its third consecutive title, totaling 64 points to finish ahead of Austintown Fitch (87), Canfield (123), Niles (138) and Badger (138).

Freshman Megan Hipple won the girls race in 19:30.3 and was followed by junior Molly Yasnowski (19:51.1) and senior Maria Dellimuti (20:06.8).

"My goal was to stay with the top runners and maybe win it," Hipple said. "There were some points where I did feel like giving up. It was hot, the course was lumpy and had some hills, but I just pushed through it. I caught a second wind and conquered it. That was my (personal record)."

The Tigers were all on their game on the same day.

"Megan is a freshman who is having a fabulous season," Howland coach Robin Kapalko said. "She keeps working hard and is improving. Molly had a great day with her PR. In fact, I believe all of our top five had PRs, but I need to double-check that.

"The girls rose to the occasion. They're running real well and they're working hard. Today, our goal was to cut the gap between our No. 1 and No. 5, and I think we accomplished that."

Yasnowski was beaming after the finish.

"We worked well as a team, not just Megan and me and Maria, but the whole Howland team," she said. "We haven't lost to a Suburban team this year, and we're very proud about that. We all felt strong and confident. My PR before today was 20:05, so I topped that by quite a bit.

"We think we have a pretty good team that can get to state. Last year we were Division II and this year we're Division I, but we've improved so much, and we're way better as a team this year. We have four seniors and tonight is senior night, so to win today and celebrate with (the seniors) tonight is special."

Maplewood's Marissa Ventura was fourth (20:08) and Boardman's Julia Gorby was fifth (20:16.4).

There were some big names who didn't compete, including Badger's Miranda Stanhope, a returning state champion, and McDonald's Anna Guerra.

"We know that (Stanhope and Guerra) weren't here and maybe some others, but as far as my team, I like where we're at right now," Kapalko said. "This isn't an easy course, and we still worked on some things and took care of our business. We got PRs and weren't really pushed. I'm very pleased with our performance. We're right where we need to be. Now we just have to stay healthy."

McDonald won the boys race without running all of its regulars.

"We really appreciate the Suburban League meets, so we wanted to come today and run well," McDonald coach Chris Rupe said. "It was neat to win the championship for a third year in a row because it's a neat gathering of a lot of runners and it brings a lot of fans together from around the Valley. Anything we can do to help promote that and show our stuff is great. We want to be part of this.

"It's a little different for our top guys," Rupe said. "They've been doing a lot of hard racing, so we took it a little easier on some of them and just asked them to place well for the team and not go all-out. Some of our guys whose seasons may not last much longer, they went hard today."

McDonald's Connor Symbolik (17:22.9), Brody Rupe (17:23.1), Ethan Domitrovich (1723.2) and Zack Canada (17:33.1) finished tenth through 13th.

Canfield sophomore Nick Plant won in 16:53.7, with Badger junior Lincoln Hopkins finishing second in 17:00.4.

"I was just looking to go out and stay with the front pack and see if maybe I could win this one today," Plant said. "After the first mile-and-a-half I wanted to pull away. I never really felt pushed. I didn't feel like I got pushed until maybe the last 2500 and then I had to step it up again. But I wasn't looking for a special time today. I was like 35 seconds off my PR."

Hopkins, a junior, feels like he's on pace to match his freshman season when he was an individual state qualifier. But he's hoping he can take his friends with him this year.

"This is the best chance we've ever had to go to state as a team and I'm really hoping we can," he said. It wasn't fun being there by myself. It didn't feel right. I love running with my team.

"We did pretty well today. I was hoping to stay with Brody Rupe of McDonald today, but he was just taking it easy since they ran really hard last Saturday. So I had to go on my own to reach my goal of finishing in the top three."