Independence’s cross country teams took the trail at the 40th Annual Avon Lake Earlybird Invitational at Lorain County Community College on Saturday and turned in a strong performance with all nine runners who competed last week at Berkshire improving their times.
Freshman Makenna McGhee led the Blue Devils with a sixth-place finish in the girls’ race.
McGhee clocked a time of 20:49, which was just 34 seconds behind the first place winner and nearly a minute better than her time from a week ago.
“I have a long way to go, but felt I had a good race today,” McGhee said. “I had a better start today and felt confident with the distance.”
Emily Skozcen also medaled for the Blue Devils, who finished eighth, with a time of 21:14, good for 10th place, while Erica Esper (25:06), Izabell McGreevy (25:48) and Emma Wensink (26:11) also competed.
“We are building a team so everyone has a role,” McGhee said. “Emily Skoczen and I both finished in the top 10 today and we have had two first year runners finish as our third runner the last two weeks. If each of us keeps making progress each week, we can finish the season strong.”
Freshman Collin Patton led the boys’ team with a 27th place finish in 18:45, 35 seconds faster than in his first high school race last week.
“In cross country, you can’t really compare times for the main part because each course is different,” Patton said. “I was happy my time was improved from last week, but I mainly think it’s because I was still adjusting to the bigger races and running a 5K instead of two miles. I was also happy with the race because I was passing more people than being passed, and that’s always a good thing.”
P.J. Oschmann ran a time of 19:43 to finish 49th and Wyatt Balser (21:53), Thorin Chappel (23:52) and Gregory Adams (24:33) also competed for the Blue Devils, who finished 14th.
“Our team is young, but we are all optimistic about the future of the team and improving our times as a team and individually,” Patton said. “I do feel pressure having the fastest times because Independence has had a record of really good runners and I feel I have to keep that tradition alive.”
