The key to a successful cross country season is show improvement from one meet to the next and so far the Independence Blue Devils are off to a great start this fall.
Eight out of the 10 Blue Devils who competed at the Tiffin Cross Country Carnival on Saturday set a new season-best time.
“It was a perfect day for cross country,” said Independence coach Craig Polman. “We don’t get enough days like that. It was warm but there was a little crispness in the air. It wasn’t raining and the course was dry. It was a beautiful day at a beautiful meet. Tiffin is a huge meet. It’s a fun one to go to.”
Independence’s boys’ team was short a runner, which forced the squad into the open race.
“We didn’t have five runners, which presented an opportunity because with a young team and no real frontrunners you sometimes get stuck in a rut running in the middle of a pack of the race,” Polman said. “Running in the open race presented something different as they got to re-experience the thrill of running in the front of the pack.”
Freshmen Collin Patton and P.J. Oschmann both set season best times in finishing among the top 10.
Patton ran a time of 18:45 to finish fifth and Oschmann came in eighth with a time of 18:54.
“Collin equaled his time from the previous week and P.J. significantly improved,” Polman said. “He ran about a minute faster than the opening meet and 50 seconds faster than at Avon Lake last week.”
Thorin Chappel (25:02) and Gregory Adams (28:23) also competed for the Blue Devils.
All six of the Independence girls set season best times in the Division II Varsity A race.
Polman bumped the girls to the Division II race both because of the time schedule and the depth of the competition.
The Division II race went off at 10:35, shortly before the boys’ race,” he said. “If we ran the Division III race it would have kicked off about an hour earlier and we already left the school at 6:40. We would have left about an hour earlier. We just wanted to go out and compete against great competition.”
Freshman Makenna McGhee entered the meet 10th fastest in Independence cross country history and with her time of 20:23 she moved up several spots.
“She moved up to fifth or sixth on the all-time board,” Polman said. “She was 10th last week and moved up a number of spots in this race. She finished 31st, just one spot out of winning a plaque. This was a good meet experience for her.”
Emily Skoczen also finished among the top 100 with a time of 20:58, good for 52nd. Josie Lee finished 147th with a time of 23:53.514 and Erica Esper was right behind her in 149th place with a time of 23:53.915.
Izabell McGreevy (25:15) and Emma Wensink (26:09) also competed for Independence.
“None of the girls ran this course before so it was a good opportunity to go out and get experience in a good race on a fast course against good competition and that’s exactly what they did,” Polman said. “They all ran season bests and Josie and Erica were neck and neck the whole race. They both improved their best times by over a minute. Izabell ran another season best time in her first year running cross country. She’s getting comfortable with the 5K distance.”
Independence will run in the Boardman Spartan Invitational on Saturday.
