Staff photo / Preston Byers. McDonald’s Naomi Sheesley approaches the finish line during the Division IV girls race at the OHSAA regional cross country meet on Saturday at Boardman High School.

BOARDMAN — Teams in all four divisions in the Northeast district converged on Boardman High School on Saturday to determine who would advance to Fortress Obetz for the 2025 Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) state cross country meet next weekend.

Of the many who attended Saturday’s regional meet, four area schools qualified as a team: Boardman, Salem, Maplewood and McDonald. While only the Quakers’ girls team punched their proverbial team ticket, the Spartans, Rockets and Blue Devils will have both their boys and girls teams represented in Obetz next Saturday.

For the host, in particular, it was a long time coming.

“We made it last year for the first time since 2013 as a team, so to do it back-to-back, we haven’t done that for a while for our program. In fact, I have to go look at the banner to see the last time we did it back-to-back,” Boardman boys head coach John Phillips said. “Really happy for our girls. It’s the first time since ’87, I think, for our girls, when Laurie Gomez (Henes) was in high school. Now, she’s the best college cross country coach in the nation. So it’s been a long time. … Having both of us going together – it’s gonna be special.”

The Spartans qualified with a sixth-place showing in the Division II girls race, while the boys finished third shortly thereafter.

Because the D2 races featured the largest number of participants of any division — more than 330 in both — they also produced the most qualifiers; the top 10 teams and top 20 non-team-qualifying individuals secured spots at state. The next-highest number of qualifiers was Division III boys, where seven teams and 14 individuals made it to state.

Combined with the programs’ general performance, the extra qualifying places and moving down in division, as part of the OHSAA’s introduction of Division IV before this season, certainly helped Boardman, among many others, triumph on Saturday.

“We take a lot of pride in our programs — we always have — here at Boardman, and we’ve always been successful,” Phillips said. “In Division I, it was hard to get teams to state, it was hard to get individuals to state in Division I. This year, with the expansion and us being in Division II, it’s allowed our programs to get to state, but I think if we were under the old system, I think we still would have been fine. We’ve worked very hard as coaches to get to this point, the athletes have worked very hard to get to this point. And it’s been a fun year for our programs.”

Salem, Maplewood and McDonald, three programs very familiar with cross country success, shined during the regional meet.

McDonald and Maplewood each finished in the top five of both the boys and girls Division IV races, but it was the Rockets, who came away with hardware.

After placing second, behind Rittman, as a team in the opening girls race, Maplewood repaid the favor to Rittman with a regional title-winning showing in the boys race. And the Rockets achieved the feat without any of their runners finishing in the top 10. Instead, each of their half dozen athletes placed between 11th and 46th, which was good enough to earn 82 points.

“Our runners build off of working with each other and working with the other runners that are on the course. They look at them as allies, not enemies, so that helps us really compete well,” Maplewood boys head coach David Deeter said.

The girls enjoyed much of the same success despite the first Rocket not coming across the finish line until 11 other runners had already done so. Three Maplewood runners came in between 12th and 20th, and none fell out of the top 70.

According to Maplewood girls head coach Mike Richards, Saturday’s state qualification and runner-up trophy was especially sweet for his team.

“Last year, we missed it by two points; we’re actually wearing these shirts that say, ‘We run ’cause we want two’ for two points. And I kept telling the girls that every point matters,” Richards said. “It’s a pride thing at Maplewood. My daughter (current YSU athlete Caleigh Richards) won state championships here, I got to run here at Maplewood and place at states, and it’s cool that my youngest (Melody Richards) is on the team and that this group of girls has some success. It’s exciting.”

While McDonald’s girls team was aided by the third-place showing of Naomi Sheesley, and the boys team benefited from the Cappuzzello brothers, Joey and Owen, who finished fifth and eighth, respectively in the boys race, Salem’s girls team finished second behind Woodridge in the Division III race despite Laura Hovorka leading her team with a 16th-place performance. , Liliana Pimentel-Alexander and Cassidy Wallace finished fewer than seven seconds later, earning valuable points for the Quakers.

In addition to the seven teams (three boys, four girls), 15 local athletes qualified for the state meet as individuals Saturday: Salem’s Sam Yakubek and Luke Stephens, Canfield’s Alex Taranto and Alexander Hammar, Austintown Fitch’s Lilly Trolio, Lakeview’s Kendall DeLeon, Poland’s Jocelyne Salaty, Lowellville’s Nate and Steven Yon, Grand Valley’s Sam Steimle, Mineral Ridge’s Josiah Toth, Chalker’s Abbey Castle, Mineral Ridge’s Kylee Molnar, Heartland Christian’s Rebecca Geiss, and Garfield’s Lina Kaufman.

Kaufman, a freshman, was among the only area runners in Division III to reach state, and among the only freshmen to do so regardless of division — she and Lowellville’s Steven Yon were the only ones to do so as individuals — but that is what the G-Men’s girls coach Matt Pfleger has begun to expect from Kaufman.

“As a freshman, coming off a district championship last week for her, to have her come in and knowing that the bullseye’s on her back and that she’s got that pressure, to see her come through and make it to the state meet as a freshman, it was spectacular to see,” Pfleger said.

The plan over the next week for Kaufman and most everyone going to state is pretty simple: get healthy, stay fresh and be ready to go for Fort Obetz.

“Don’t fix what isn’t broken,” Boardman’s Phillips said of his mantra for the week. “Don’t break anything.”