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Wildcats, Ship cruise in XC
Sulon, Nesmith cross finish line first.
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David Oliver/Special to The Sentinel
Mechanicsburg’s Matt Nesmith won the boys’ varsity race at Big Spring on Saturday.
Michael O’Conner is a 23-year-old in his first year as the head coach of the Shippensburg cross country team.
Karl Robinson is 66 and in his 14th and final season at the helm of the Mechanicsburg cross country squad.
The pair are as different as night and day, but at the end of Saturday morning’s Bulldog Invitational, held at Big Spring High School, both left with huge smiles on their faces.
O’Conner’s girls’ team won the team title on Saturday, while Robinson had runners take first in both the boys’ and girls’ races. Conestoga Valley won the boys’ team title with a score of 100.
Shippensburg placed all seven of its runners in the top 40 in a field of 97 runners. Top finishers for the Greyhounds were Reynah Spence (second, 21:29), Jess Howard (third, 21:50), Margeaux Spence (eighth, 22:38), Michelle Burkholder (19th, 23:30), Ivy Eliff (30th, 24:29), Megan Baer (36th, 25:13) and MacKenna Kelley (38th, 25:18). Reynah and Margeaux Spence are the younger twin sisters of two-time PIAA Class AAA champion Neely Spence.
Central Dauphin’s score of 112 was good enough for second place, after Ship’s team score of 58.
Needless to say, O’Conner was beaming over his team’s performance.
“It was awesome today,” O’Conner said. “We have good runners talent-wise and girls who work hard as well.”
If you ask the Greyhound girls, they’ll tell you that they should have done even better.
“Overall, I thought we did pretty well,” Howard said. “We were planning on finishing 1-2-3, but a few things came up.”
One of those “things that came up” was Mechanicsburg’s Sarah Sulon — she finished 15 seconds in front of Reynah Spence to earn first place with her time of 20:44.
“I was a little surprised with how well I did, Neely Spence’s twin sisters were running behind me,” Sulon said. “I wanted to start out as fast as I could so I could get away from the field. I felt good and just kept going until the end.”
“Sarah has good speed, she finished 12th at states last year,” said Robinson. “I didn’t know what to expect from the Spence twins; we haven’t seen much of them, but the reputation of their big sister preceded them.”
Sulon has some big goals for this season.
“This was my first big win of an invitational,” Sulon said. “I want to be in the Top 25 in states this year and get a medal.”
On the boys’ side of the meet, Mechanicsburg’s Matt Nesmith came in expecting to win, but what he wasn’t expecting was to see Central Dauphin’s Nathaniel Huff and Ed Schrom lining up next to him at the starting line.
“Those guys have beaten me in a lot of races,” Nesmith said. “I didn’t know Central Dauphin was going to be here, but once I did, I made up my mind that I was going to go for it.”
Like Sulon, Nesmith broke away from the pack early.
“I wanted to get a win for coach Robinson,” Nesmith said. “I went out and went for it with the attitude that if I fall back, that’s fine.”
Nesmith didn’t fall back, he clocked in at 17:38 to finish ahead of Huff (17:45.05) and Schrom (17:45.46).
“Both (Sulon and Nesmith) have had nice seasons, winning an invitational is a nice thing,” Robinson said. “The kids are very hard-workers, they both deserve all of the success they’ve had.”
As a team, Mechanicsburg finished third in the boys’ race, with its top five performances coming from Nesmith, Peter Pham (11th, 18:44), Zack Benner (28th, 19:24), Joel Ziegler (40th, 19:46) and Sebastian Nicewicz (19:51). The Wildcat girls took fifth and got strong efforts from Sulon, Alexa Gruschow (fourth, 21:57) and Allie Zelenky (44th, 25:45).
Other local boys’ teams to place in the meet on Saturday were Trinity (fifth, 144), Big Spring (sixth, 166), Boiling Springs (seventh, 190), Bible Baptist (13th, 304) and Shippensburg (16th, 363).
Local finishers in the boys’ top 25 include Trinity’s Tommy Gruschow (fifth, 18:24), Big Spring’s Clayton Weber (14th, 18:52), Boiling Springs’ Greg Derk (16th, 18:58), Trinity’s Michael Gruschow (19th, 19:04), Bible Baptist’s Greg Johnson (21st, 19:06) and Boiling Springs’ Drew Line (22nd, 19:09).
Other local girls’ teams to place include Trinity (third, 115), Boiling Springs (fourth, 115) and Big Spring (13th, 307).
Local finishers in the girls’ top 25 include Trinity’s Kerry Campbell (fifth, 22:07), Boiling Springs’ Lauren Lehman (sixth, 22:27), Trinity’s Kasey Heberling (10th, 22:54), Boiling Springs’ Krissy Lobaugh (21st, 23:38) and Big Spring’s Katie Johnston (25th, 24:12).
NOTES: Central Dauphin won both team titles in the JV race ... Top local finishers in the JV race were Bible Baptist’s Rebekah McCurdy (third in the girls race) and Shippensburg’s Josh Wolfe (fifth in the boys’ race) ... Susquehannock won both team titles in the junior high competition ... Top local finishers in the junior high race were Trinity’s Joanne Pokrzywa (fourth in the girls’ race) and Big Spring’s Todaro Vincent (first in the boys race).
BULLDOG INVITATIONAL
Saturday, at Big Spring HS
BOYS
TEAM RESULTS
1.Conestoga Valley 100; 2.Central Dauphin 107; 3.Mechanicsburg 120; 4.Susquehannock 134; 5.Trinity 144; 6.Big Spring 166; 7.Boiling Springs 190; 8.Kennard-Dale 219; 9.Harrisburg 240; 10.Bermudian Springs 241; 11.Waynesboro 258; 12.Athens Area 282; 13.Bible Baptist 304; 14.Greencastle-Antrim 313; 15.Hedgesville 359; 16.Shippensburg 363; 17.James Buchanan 448; 18.Columbia 531.
INDIVIDUAL RESULTS (Top 50)
1.Matt Nesmith (Mech), 17:38; 2.Nathaniel Huff (CD), 17:45.05; 3.Ed Schrom (CD), 17:45.46; 4.Joe Pasquarello (G-A), 18:08; 5.Tommy Gruschow (Trin), 18:24; 6.Aaron Trimpey (Susq), 18:25; 7.Abram Nace (Lewistown), 18:29; 8.Rakeem Holton (Har) 18:34; 9.Naeb Mengesteab (CoV), 18:35; 10.Steve McAndrew (K-D), 18:36; 11.Peter Pham (Mech), 18:44; 12.Kyle Phillips (Way), 18:46.47; 13.Connor Dickson (CoV), 18:46.97; 14.Clayton Weber (BiS), 18:52; 15.Jesse Wool (Berm), 18:56; 16.Greg Derk (BoS), 18:58; 17.Nathan Kilgore (CoV), 19:02; 18.Brandon Taylor (K-D), 19:03; 19.Michael Gruschow (Trin), 19:04; 20.Bryan Procopio (Susq);
21.Greg Johnson (BB), 19:06; 22.Drew Line (BoS), 19:09.03; 23.Nathan Cody (CoV), 19:09.73; 24.Ben Steines (Susq), 19:11; 25.Luke Stegura (CD), 19:12; 26.Joe Todaro (BiS), 19:15; 27.Billy Knouse (BoS), 19:20; 28.Zack Benner (Mech), 19:24; 29.Ayo Battle-Williams (Har), 19:28; 30.Devin Bievenour (Berm), 19:30.10; 31.Matthew Good (CD), 19:30.79; 32.Joe Whitmore (Trin), 19:33; 33.Andrew Knotts (Hedge), 19:36; 34.Colin Rogers (AA), 19:37; 35.Ben Bloser (BiS), 19:39; 36.Shane Yingling (Susq), 19:40; 37.Andrew Cole (Way), 19:42; 38.Brandon Long (BiS), 19:43; 39.Jarod Stringham (AA), 19:44; 40.Joel Ziegler (Mech), 19:46.06;
41.Chris Knotts (Hedge), 19:46.99; 42.Zach Mooney (Ship), 19:47; 43.Alex Huber (CoV), 19:49; 44.Sebastian Nicewicz (Mech), 19:51.36; 45.Patrick Lyden (Trin), 19:51.81; 46.Aaron Reynolds (Harrisburg Christian), 19:57; 47.Kevin Uryc (Har), 19:59; 48.Brandon Claypool (Trin), 20:02; 49.Mike Kutz (Mech), 50.Jared Skotek (CD), 20:06.
GIRLS
TEAM RESULTS
1.Shippensburg 58; 2.Central Dauphin 112; 3.Trinity 115; 4.Boiling Springs 115; 5.Mechanicsburg 143; 6.Conestoga Valley 158; 7.Athens Area 187; 8.Greencastle-Antrim 220; 9.Susquehannock 221; 10.James Buchanan 228; 11.Kennard-Dale 242; 12.Bermudian Springs 284; 13.Big Spring 307; 14.Waynesboro 317; 15.Columbia 391.
INDIVIDUAL RESULTS (Top 50)
1.Sarah Sulon (Mech), 20:44; 2.Reynah Spence (Ship), 21:29; 3.Jess Howard (Ship), 21:50; 4.Alexa Gruschow (Mech), 21:57; 5.Kerry Campbell (Trin), 22:07; 6.Lauren Lehman (BoS), 22:27; 7.Hannah Harvey-Sampson (AA), 22:32; 8.Margeaux Spence (Ship), 22:38; 9.Jessica Dillner (CoV), 22:54.18; 10.Kasey Heberling (Trin), 22:54.64; 11.Alexandra Peter (CD), 23:02; 12.Gabrielle Houser (Susq), 23:04; 13.Andi Matter (Greenwood), 23:13; 14.Ashley Whipple (AA), 23:19; 15.Adrianne Ranck (CoV), 23:22; 16.Samantha Wood (CD), 23:23; 17.Alyssa Meadows (Hedgesville), 23:27; 18.Charmayne McFadden (G-A), 23:29; 19.Michelle Burkholder (Ship), 23:30; 20.Rebecca Skotek (CD), 23:35;
21.Krissy Lobaugh (BoS), 23:38; 22.Hana Krechel (K-D), 23:42; 23.Caroline VanBlargan (CD), 23:53; 24.Danna Lehneis (Susq), 24:07; 25.Katie Johnston (BiS), 24:12; 26.Nikki Sunderland (BoS), 24:14; 27.Krista Kelly (G-A), 24:16; 28.Jessie Osborne (BoS), 24:20; 29.Courtney Bernecker (JB), 24:26; 30.Ivy Eliff (Ship), 24:29; 31.Debra Buchanan (JB), 24:38; 32.Nadine Thomas (CoV), 24:48; 33.Hannah Brown (Trin), 24:56.04; 34.Katherine Schlusser (Trin), 24:56.58; 35.Keegan Reed (JB), 25:10; 36.Megan Baer (Ship), 25:13; 37.Christina Estes (AA), 25:16; 38.MacKenna Kelley (Ship), 25:18; 39.Melanie Insley (Trin), 25:23; 40.Katie Wheeler (Hedge), 25:25;
41.Jenni Sweger (Berm), 25:30; 42.Olivia Shew (Way), 25:33; 43.Shannon Greenbaum (BoS), 25:44; 44.Allie Zelenky (Mech), 25:45; 45.Shanna Hawkins (Steel-High), 25:47; 46.Mary Werdebaugh (G-A), 25:54; 47.Kayla Richwine (BiS), 26:00; 48.Jen Carpenter (Berm), 26:16; 49.Selena Irvine (Trin), 26:28; 50.Paige Miller (Mech), 26:29.
