GATES MILLS—Cross country runners enjoyed unseasonably warm and dry conditions for most of the 2015 season.
That all changed on Saturday when the runners at the Chagrin Valley Conference championships at Hawken were greeted with temperatures that dipped into the high 30s and even some snow flurries.
“Everybody was faced with it but we’ve been spoiled by such a nice season all year, as far as the weather goes, and then the conference championship comes and it’s basically snowing out there,” said Kirtland coach JP Moran. “That was a little adjustment.”
The weather led to some slower times but Kirtland’s Kevin Cummings and Christine Walsh finished among the top 16 runners in their respective races to earn second team all-conference honors.
Colton Zanko, Josh Mansfield, Andrea Frankel and Ellie David all earned honorable mention status.
“I can’t be disappointed with Christine and Kevin being second team and then we had Josh and Colton were honorable mention and Andrea and Ellie were honorable mention, so that was exciting on the girls’ side. They’re both freshmen and were honorable mention,” Moran said. “We were shooting for first team for Kevin and Christine. Kevin missed it just by a couple of kids and Christine was a little banged up so we were just making sure she at least maintained her second team all-CVC. I’m real happy with that. Going into it we were shooting for that.”
Cummings finished 10th with a time of 18:37 while Walsh was 14th in 23:30.
Zanko (19:12), Mansfield (20:23), Konnor Duncan (20:24), Frankel (24:41) and David (24:45) all finished among the top 25 runners in the Valley Division.
Jake Grdadolnik (20:30), Kirk Brauer (24:41), Sabrina Rahz (25:08), Maria Shepard (25:53), Emily Crebs (26:10) and Holly Samf (27:23) also competed for the Hornets.
Kirtland’s boys finished in fourth place while the girls were fifth.
“Overall, the team place shook out kind of how I expected it,” Moran said. “Going in we were maybe thinking about the top three but looking at how it shook out it probably wasn’t realistic with the (conference) realignment.”
Kirtland next will compete in Saturday’s Division III district meet at the Trumbull County Fairgrounds.
