Kirtland junior Sydney Snyder has made the most of her first year on the Hornets’ cross country team.
Snyder developed into one of the team’s top runners and on Saturday she extended her season by at least another week when she placed 19th at the Division III district meet at Trumbull County Fairgrounds. Snyder ran the race in 20:58 to earn a spot in next week’s regional meet at Boardman High School in Youngstown.
“It feels great,” Snyder said. “I'm really excited to get the chance to compete at regionals.”
Snyder had been chasing her sister Lauren all season.
Lauren Snyder finished in 21:37, good for 27th place overall. She narrowly missed advancing to regionals.
“My goal was to stay with Lauren as long as I could and not get caught behind big packs of runners,” Sydney Snyder said. “I would not be in the regional cross country meet if it weren't Lauren pushing and supporting me throughout the season. She's the reason I ran cross country.”
Sydney Snyder has ran faster times this season but the elements made Saturday’s rough even more challenging.
“It was one of her best this season, but she has gone 20:38, 20:53, and 20:55, 20:56,” said Kirtland coach JP Moran. “It was pretty close (to a PR) but by far much worse course and weather conditions. I would definitely say it was her best race of the year.”
Kirtland’s girls’ team finished in eighth place overall.
Ninah Johnson (24:24), Katie David (24:30), Ellie David (24:54), Emily Crebs (24:56) and Holly Samf (25:37) also ran.
The Hornets’ boys’ team finished in seventh place.
Colton Zanko (19:04), Konnor Duncan (19:06) and Jake Grdadolnik (19:18) finished 25th, 28th and 30th overall. Andrew Schneider (21:56), Nick Briggs (22:37) and Kirk Brauer (22:41) also represented the Hornets in the race.
The girls’ Division III regional race will begin at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.
