8/16 High School XC Weekend Recap

National High School XC Weekend Recaps (2014)

Aug 16, 2014

Saturday marked the season debut for two-time New Balance Nationals All-American two miler Annie Heffernan (10:12 PR) of St. Ursula Academy in Cincy as well as many of the other top teams and individuals from the state of Ohio as they start their seasons where they will finish it a few months from now on the Ohio state meet course in Hebron at the National Trail Raceway with the OHSAA Early Season Invitational. Heffernan had a smashing debut as she ran away from the field in the seeded girls race with a 17:57 5K victory. The Mason girls claimed the team title by putting nearly their entire top 5 among the top 25 places with Maegan Murphy (7th, 19:06), Ellie Brush (12th, 19:42), Leah Ford (21st, 20:14), Ailee Henderson (22nd, 20:18), and Erin Brush (26th, 20:23) for a team score of 88 points to put them in first in the final tabulations.

In the top boys race of the day, the pre-season Division 1 ranked Hilliard Davidson stumbled out of the gate finishing third behind St. Igantius of Cleveland and the Mason boys which should certainly shake up the next revised rankings in the state. St. Igantius was led by the individual race winner Luke Wagner, who battled it out with Mason's top runner Nick Grismer with the 4:14 miler Wagner able to have just enough to hold off the 4:21 miler Grismer in a photo finish with both timed at 15:47. Hilliard Davison was strong up front with their top three in Colin Burdette, Luke Hoover, and Alex Steitz all among the top 6 finishers, but lost the team race on the back end to better packed squads from St. Ignatius (64 pts, 1:09 spread) and Mason (71 pts, 1:17 spread) with their top 5 time gap of 1:23 and score of 86 points.