Amherst girls cross country coach Terry Kemp remembers a time when dual and tri-meets in cross country were the norm.
In his 32nd year as a cross country coach, Kemp has seen a lot. But this time it’s different with COVID restrictions limiting what runners can do, and how they start and finish races. Through all of that, Kemp is Kemp has found his runners to be adaptable.
“We used to have duals and tris all the time,” he said. “The year we were state runners up we had a conference schedule like this and we only ran like two invitationals. So for me, I’ve seen this style of running things.”
Kemp’s Comets produced a top-two finisher in junior Aurora Wilson (21:52), who finished second in a competitive girls race won by Berea-Midpark. Wilson used her knowledge of the 3.1-mile course at Lorain County Community College to her advantage.
“This is technically our home course, so I felt really good,” Wilson said. “It’s a bit of a slower course than others, but I felt good.”
The host Comets won the girls race with 26 points, placing six runners in the top ten. North Ridgeville finished second with 53, followed by Berea-Midpark with 59.
In the early races, Amherst’s freshmen studs, Ty Perez and Luke Bowlsby (17:25) finished as the top two finishers. In four career high school races Perez has four first place finishes, including at the Keystone Ice Breaker.
“I just wanted to get out fast,” Perez said. “I wanted to beat my last time here, because we run here a lot. It’s where the conference meet and district meet are at. So I just wanted to get as much practice on here as I can and try to improve every time.”
Perez set a freshman school record in his first career race with a time of 16:41, eclipsing the former record set in 2007 by Miles Pittak. A week ago at the Lake Erie Challenge, Perez once again broke the record, topping his previous time by 21 seconds.
The freshman didn’t set any records against the Titans and Rangers, but he added another win to his resume. As did Amherst, winning the meet with 19 points. The Comets placed five runners in the top seven, led by Perez and Bowlsby.
“We’ve had a really hard weeks of training these last couple of weeks and I’m glad I was able to do good today,” Bowlsby said. “Everyone has been performing super well, so I’m really glad with the way everyone has been running.”
Freshmen showed out in the girls race as well, Madelyn Palcic, a first-year runner from North Ridgeville placed third with a time of 22:11.
“She put herself out there and took a risk, and that’s all we can really ask of them,” North Ridgeville girls head coach Linda Morales said. “I’m really proud of the efforts I know it can be pretty hard running in such a small race.”
A week ago the Rangers raced at the Ashland Invitational, a much bigger field than they saw at LCCC.
All three teams will return to the course at LCCC throughout the year, including at the end of the regular season for the Southwestern Conference Championships. As a first-year head coach leading a young team, Morales is hoping that this experience will help her team at that meet.
“It’s very important,” Morales said of becoming familiar with the course. “Especially because our team has three girls that are in their first year of running. This was actually the first year this time we’ve been able to come to this course. So it’ll definitely be important for them to know the ins and outs of it before the championships.”
