SVSM girls serve notice with title: Cross Country State Notebook

Tim Rogers, The Plain Dealer, November 08, 2009 5:05 a.m.

Elyria Catholic’s Marty Coolidge, left, leads above, but Bay’s Michael Bradjic (944) would pass Coolidge and the rest of the Division II field to win the individual championship Saturday in Columbus. Coolidge finished third. - (Lonnie Timmons III, The Plain Dealer)

Columbus -- Make a statement.

That's the way the St. Vincent-St. Mary girls saw it Saturday before the start of the Division II race in the state cross country meet at Scioto Downs.

"Between the basketball programs and the football team at our school we just felt it was time for us to make a name for ourselves," head coach Dan Lancianese said. "It was time for people to know who we are."

People know who the Irish are today after they won the school's first cross country state championship with 98 points, seven points in front of runner-up St. Clairsville and 17 ahead of third-place winner and defending champion Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy. The title was an improvement over last year's seventh-place finish.

While Maria Arnone was the top finisher for SVSM in seventh place, Lancianese pointed to the ninth-place finish by Emily Tomei and the 47th place finish by Marissa Rosetti as the keys.

Lancianese, a special education teacher in his 16th season at SVSM, said his team was in third place when Tomei and Rosetti each had about 500 meters to go.

"They each passed anywhere from seven to 10 runners in front of them over the final 1,000 meters," he said. "They both had tremendous spurts."

Fashion police: The leopard-print shorts the team from Green wore were the talk of the event. However, they clashed terribly with Green's black tops.

Nice finish:Brunswick's girls came into the Division I meet ranked 14th in the state by the oh.milesplit.us, but the Blue Devils finished fourth with 179 points, sparked by a 29th-place finish by Loren McDaniel and a 50th by Selena Pasadyn, both sophomores. Badgering:Berkshire senior Alex Bowers finished 14th to spark the Badgers to a third-place finish behind defending champ Minster and Spencerville in Division III. Bowers ran 19:50.46 and her finish was significant because as the 14th overall place-winner she got a spot on the awards stand, which accommodates the top 15.

"I was 16th last year, so this year I made it," she said. Berkshire's team finish also was believed to be the best in school history.

How about this weather? After two weeks of trudging through cold and sloppy conditions at district and regional meets around the state, the conditions were nearly perfect at state. The temperature was around 70 degrees, and although there was a stiff breeze when the runners left the stadium, times were down across the board compared with recent weeks.

"Almost every week [the whole season] has been wet, muddy, cold and windy," St. Ignatius coach Michael Gallagher said. "The only thing we had today was a little wind."

"To run in mud that's so deep the two weeks before, you just feel a lot faster now," Crestwood runner Brendan McGee said.

Healthy this time around: McGee didn't run a perfect race Saturday, but he was thankful just to be at full strength. Last season, McGee got sick the week of the state meet and posted a disappointing 58th place finish in 16:49.48. Saturday he dropped more than 40 seconds and took fifth (16:08.72).

"I feel like I'm on top of the world," McGee said. "It's wonderful."

Doing backflips: The celebration for Woodridge's fourth consecutive state title wasn't complete until the team convinced Jared Cottril, the Bulldogs' alternate, to execute a handspring and backflip in the infield at Scioto Downs. Cottrill, a sophomore, had pulled off the backflip at the state meet last season as well.

Banner year: The most visible display of school spirit came from Dublin Coffman. In the moments preceding the Division I boys race, a small airplane pulling a banner reading "Go Rocks" flew over the stadium. Coffman, which is located within 30 minutes of the event, was not quite as impressive with its performance. The Shamrocks finished 13th with 318 points.

Freshman phenom:Independence freshman Kyle Polman took fourth in the Division III boys race, the best finish by a freshman in any of the six races. Last season, his brother, Ryan Polman, was the top freshman in Division III, taking 20th. Ryan won the individual title this season, but is sure to have plenty of competition from his younger brother in the coming years. "His races the last few weeks have truly amazed me," said coach Craig Polman, the boys' dad. "He's run well for many years, but at the high school level, for him to do this well, it surprised me."

Free-lance writer Anders Larson contributed to this report.