Cardinal senior Megan Maddox added another impressive accomplishment to her first season on the cross country path.
Maddox ran a personal best time of 20:32 to finish 11th overall at the Division III district cross country meet at the Trumbull County Fairgrounds on Saturday. By finishing among the top 16, Maddox became the first Cardinal runner to earn a berth to the regional meet at Boardman High School in Youngstown since Elizabeth Timas did it in 2011.
“It is a huge relief,” Maddox said. “In the beginning of the season I never dreamt of making it this far and now I’m here. I couldn’t be happier.”
Maddox’s new PR moved her up to fourth place on Cardinal’s record board for fastest times in a 5K.
“I was very satisfied with my race,” she said. “I ran the best I could and it showed. I ran 30 seconds faster than my previous PR. I ran a 20:32, which moved me up to number four on the board, jumping two places.”
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At regionals, Maddox will employ a similar strategy to the one she used at the district meet.
“I’m going to start out hard and try to keep a constant pace,” she said. “I hope to run even faster come Saturday.”
Jenna Ayer (24:02), Abigail Geesling (25:09), Hanna Sauberan (25:13), Autumn Zak (26:57) and Ashley Peterson (28:15) also ran for the Huskies’ girls team, which finished in ninth place, while Benjamin Lobdell (19:27), Brendan White (19:49), Joey Bradesca (19:58), Trevor Bachna (20:29), Gene Henrie (20:38) and Clayton Sauberan (23:06) represented the Cardinal boys, who also finished ninth.
