McDonald’s Hipple shines at regional meet
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BOARDMAN -- It's been a long time coming for McDonald senior Megan Hipple.
For three years, she's been on the cusp, but hasn't quite been able to make that final leap to finish at the top.
As a freshman at Howland in 2019, she finished eighth at the Division I regional cross country meet, then as a sophomore she slipped to 12th. After arriving at McDonald as a junior, she jumped to third last year.
This year, however, has been Hipple's year.
Although a different sport, she was the girls Division III state champion in the 3200m run in track in the spring. She was the top local finisher at the Spartan Invitational about a month ago, then she won the district meet at Madison last week.
Now, she's the girls Division III regional champion -- winning her race by about 12 seconds on Saturday at Boardman.
"I went into it knowing that there's a lot of people that are at my pace -- all there to push me," Hipple said. "So I wanted to stay with that front group, and if I could, I was going to try to pull from them and I was able to do that."
Among the runners Hipple has beaten over the last two weeks is two-time defending Division III state champion Caleigh Richards of Maplewood. Hipple beat Richards at districts last week and again at regionals this week.
Despite their rivalry on the course, the two have the utmost respect for one another, as the pair shared a brief embrace after they had both crossed the finish line.
"Caleigh's always been very kind and supportive," Hipple said. "So after the race, whether she wins or I win, we both always make sure to give each other a high five or a hug and congratulate each other."
Hipple's run to the top began after the end of last season at the Footlocker Eastbay Midwest Regionals, where she finished 52nd against a deep field of top runners from several states.
"She had a great showing there...but the purpose of attending that meet was to motivate her and show her that there's more out there," McDonald girls coach Robin Kapalko said.
As Kapalko expected, that race sparked something in Hipple.
Hipple said she began lifting more, particularly her upper body, and worked on her core. The work she put in last winter has paid dividends, and Hipple's rise comes as no surprise to Kapalko.
"Megan is that kid that just does every single thing you tell her and does it right," Kapalko said. "She lifted in the offseason, she put in her winter miles and she had a great track season. (Saturday)'s the first close competition she's had, so it was nice to see her get pushed."
"She's very motivated, she's very self-driven and she doesn't get frazzled easily. She has a good mindset."
One last step still remains for Hipple's dream season, though, and that's next week's Division III state meet in Obetz.
"I would love to win, but I still have tough competition," Hipple said. "Just because I beat these girls once, doesn't mean I'll beat them again."
Joining Hipple in Obetz next week are the rest of her Blue Devils teammates. The McDonald girls earned the last team qualifying spot by finishing third with 107 points.
"We got the job done," Kapalko said. "I kind of anticipated that we weren't going to beat Mogadore or Norwayne. So I thought if we showed up today, we would probably get third. We got a little closer than I anticipated. But we ran well enough to get ourselves to state and hopefully bigger and better things next weekend."
ROCKETS BLAST TO TOP
The Maplewood boys cross country team is a close-knit group.
They run for each other more than they run for themselves, according to head coach David Deeter. Something reflected by the bright, platinum blonde color that each member of the team has dyed their hair in solidarity to one another.
"These guys really care about each other," Deeter said. "You can see it on normal runs. They have a blast together, but they also work really hard. So when it comes to the meet, they want to be around each other so they push each other so they can all run well."
On Saturday, the Rockets each pushed each other to the finish line, capturing the boys Division III regional championship with 80 points.
"They knew there were a lot of great teams here," Deeter said. "So they were trying to focus on each other and push each other to do as well as they could. And they hoped that the other teams would help push them to be even better than what they could be."
Maplewood had four runners finish in the top 25, led by junior Alex Donaldson, who came in 10th (17:07.0). Senior Bryson Himes was right behind him in 12th (17:09.3), then junior Brandon Calderwood took 20th (17:28.7) and sophomore Trevor Shipman finished 25th (17:46.8).
Rounding out the team were freshman Andrew Donaldson in 44th (18:21.5), junior Tom Dahmen in 61st (18:54.3) and junior Seth Graves in 107th (24:16.8).
Also heading to next week's state meet are the McDonald boys, who finished fourth with 105 points to claim the final qualifying spot.
BROTHERLY LOVE
Last year, Mineral Ridge sophomore Dominic Pappagallo wanted to share the experience of running in the state meet with his older brother, Timmy, but unfortunately, Timmy had a broken foot.
Dominic was able to qualify for states again with a 5th-place finish (16:39.2) in Saturday's Division III regional meet, and this time, Timmy will finally join him in Obetz next week after claiming the last individual qualifying spot by finishing 16th (17:19.6).
"Honestly, it's like a dream for me and him to be able to go down," Dominic said. "Last year I went down just by myself and with the girls team, so this is amazing."
Ideally, Dominic was hoping the whole Mineral Ridge team would be able to join him, but the Rams narrowly missed out, finishing just outside the top-4 qualifying spots in sixth with 143 points.
However, even though they won't be running, Dominic said the whole Rams team will be there in Obetz to cheer him and Timmy on.
"I'm so excited to share that moment of me and my brother," Dominic said. "My team will probably go out to eat as a team and stay in a hotel. I'm looking forward to that, us all going down together."
RUNNING NOTES
In Division II, the Salem girls team qualified for the state meet with a 4th-place finish (153 points). Maggie Hall was the Quakers top runner, coming in 21st (20:17.6), followed shortly by Megan Stafford in 25th (20:28.9)
Lakeview senior Zac Haley's ongoing competition against Marlington will continue into next week's state meet after he finished 6th (16:34.6) behind three Marlington runners.
"That whole group from Marlingon, I've been racing back and forth with them the whole year," Haley said. "I wanted to get more against them, so I'll try to get them (next week) at state, but it's fun racing with them."
Haley is looking forward to his last cross country race of his high school career.
"Nothing to be sad about yet," Haley said. "Did some good things this year, did way better than I thought I would have this season. So at states, I'm just going to give it everything I've got for one last race."
Hubbard's Brayden Murray (8th, 16:42.3) and Poland's Logan Flament (10th, 16:46.3) also qualified for next week's state meet from Division II.
Although no local girls teams or individuals qualified for states in Division I, three Division I boys are headed to Obetz -- Boardman's David D'Altorio (9th, 16:11.3) and Brock Farris (16th, 16:20.6) and Canfield's Blake Baker (11th, 16:16.3).
"I just pushed myself as much as I could," D'Altorio said. "I just wanted to finish because I didn't last year. (States) is something that only a few kids get to experience, so it's just amazing that (Farris and I) both get to experience it."
nmadhavan@tribtoday.com