BOYS CROSS COUNTRY
Canal Winchester makes another run
Indians hope to better their
last-place finish in state meet last year
Friday, September 23, 2005
Steve Blackledge
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
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In hindsight, finishing last in the Division II state
championship wasn’t such a bad thing for the Canal Winchester boys cross
country team.
By
qualifying for the 16-team event at Scioto Downs, the Indians’ young runners
gained invaluable experience in a competitive environment and learned what it
takes to compete at the highest level.
It
also left a sour taste in their mouths.
"Seeing
our school on the bottom of the result sheet when we left Scioto Downs last
year really set the tone for this year," senior front-runner Scott
Wildermuth said. "To say we want to improve on last year is an
understatement. We want to be in the top five places at state this year."
Wildermuth,
who has a season-best time of 16 minutes, 41 seconds, is one of the area’s
elite runners, but his tight supporting pack of one junior and six sophomores
usually finishes somewhere in the 17-minute range.
"From
No. 2 through 8, there’s not much of a difference from meet to meet and those
sophomores really push each other," Canal Winchester coach John Bender
said.
"For
sophomores, they’re very mature and experienced. These boys were 134-0 in
middle school. They’ve run a lot of big meets and have high expectations. Even
though we didn’t run so well at the state last year, a lot of people say you
have to experience it once to see what it’s all about before you’re successful
there."
Canal
opened by winning four of five meets, most recently the Division I section of
the Central Ohio Invitational on Saturday with 30 points. The Indians took six
of the top 12 spots. They also were fourth in the prestigious Tiffin Carnival,
considered a preview for the state meet.
"The
kids have done even better than expected thus far," Bender said.
"We’d like to get some more kids to close the gap on Scott up around the
17-minute mark, but we have time. Last year, we peaked a little too soon and
the boys and the coaches have learned that we can’t be intense all the
time."
After
Canal won Mid-State League Buckeye Division and district titles in 2004, it
barely secured the fourth and final state qualifying spot in the regional
before faltering at the state meet. A respiratory ailment that hampered
Wildermuth played a big role.
"I’d
like to place in the top-10 individually, but the team comes first,"
Wildermuth said. "It’s definitely a very focused bunch of guys, but being
the only senior I feel like it’s my responsibility to lead them and set the
right example in practice."
Bender
is confident that the Indians, ranked fifth in the latest state coaches poll,
will be a factor in the tournament in October.
"Scott’s
healthy, the kids have a great work ethic and we’ve taken last year’s
inexperience and turned it into a strength," he said. "We don’t have
any excuses this year."