Olmsted Falls girls, Bay boys reign at Keystone Icebreaker cross country

The Katie Clute era has ended. Thus begins the Sam Goodnough era.

With multiple state champion Clute having moved on to the University of Oregon, there might have been a huge hole left in the Olmsted Falls girls cross country program. But that’s not the case.

Goodnough, a senior who made huge strides last year in track and field, literally ran away from the rest of the field Aug. 21 in the Keystone Icebreaker cross country meet at the Lorain County Equestrian Center in Oberlin. Goodnough took the lead from the first step and only increased it, crossing the line in 18 minutes, 49.4 seconds, more than a minute ahead of runner-up Annabelle Snyder of Rittman.

PHOTOS: Keystone Icebreaker cross country, Aug. 21, 2023

In the boys race, Bay defended its team title with a strong second half of the race, scoring 63 points to 77 for Midview. Fairview was third with 99. Other Morning Journal coverage area teams in the race were Olmsted Falls (sixth with 166), Open Door (seventh with 191), Keystone (eighth with 193), Lake Ridge (nintth, 211), Firelands (11th, 242), Columbia (12th, 315), Lorain (13th, 317), Wellington (14th, 353) and Avon (15th, 367).

Goodnough was a regional qualifier in the 1,600-meter run in the spring and missed a state meet berth by just one spot. But nothing in her past races got her prepared for what happened in the cross country opener.

“I was by myself the whole way,” she said. “I wasn’t used to that. It’s a new thing.”

With Goodnough leading the way, the Bulldogs had four of the first nine finishers on the way to winning the team title with 47 points to 54 for Cloverleaf. Other area teams in the race were Fairview (fifth, 156), Avon (seventh, 194), Wellington (eighth, 249), Amherst (ninth, 258), Columbia (10th, 273), Firelands (11th, 303), Oberlin (12th, 308), Lake Ridge (13th, 344), Open Door (14th, 367), Midview (15th, 388), Keystone (16th, 463) and Lorain (17th (502).

“It’s a nice start,” Falls coach Rae Alexander said of the team victory. “I’m happy. They just went out there and raced. I think they were just so hungry for a meet. It was a good one to start with.”

Something else that is new to Goodnough is she is now the undisputed leader of the team, a role she kind of shared with Clute last year.

“I feel like Katie set me up pretty well,” she said. “She always kind of made sure that everyone was included. It was kind of us two leading everything last year.”

Alexander said Goodnough has settled into the role of team leader very naturally.

“She’s doing amazing,” Alexander said. “She was already, like, practicing stepping up a year ago, with Katie having the lead. But she was willing to speak up and take charge if she had to. If anybody’s going to teach you, Katie is the team player that’s the best example you could have.”

An example of Goodnough’s leadership occurred at the starting line prior to the race.

“I told them at the line, ‘Have some fun and let’s go win it,’” Goodnough said.

Goodnough was backed by sophomore Audrey Prada in third (19:58.2), junior Kendall McCray in fifth (20:38.3) and senior Rachel Delap in ninth (20:58.9). Freshman Abigail Thompson made her first varsity race a memorable one, as her finish in 31st place was just good enough for the victory.

Bay’s boys have a new coach in Jack Hautz, but he was an assistant for veteran coach Steve Babson, and since he’s taken over, the program is very similar to what it used to be. That includes winning this meet for the second consecutive year.

“Going into the race, I told the guys we were trying to do two things,” Hautz said. “We were trying to set a baseline to see where we can build from this, and we were trying to get some affirmation. They’ve been training hard all summer long. They’ve been slowly building up their mileage. We had two goals, and I think we did both of them. The win was just a byproduct of their hard work.”

Running without frontman Michael Hanselman, who was a healthy non-participant, the Rockets were led by Will Dunstan, who placed third with a time of 16:35.3. He was followed by Connor Spellman in fifth (16:50.5), Kieran Ripley in ninth (17:14.3), Peyton Myers in 22nd (18:02.2) and Spencer Grace in 24th (18:09.0). Just before the two-mile mark, the Rockets trailed Midview by a few points, but Bay is known for running strong in the final stages of races.

“We didn’t have our top guy, so we were basically seeing if we could make up for missing our top runner with our 2-3-4,” Dunstan said. “We just went out like we wanted to win it. We ran as if we were the No. 1 seed.”

Dunstan is the only senior on the squad, and Hautz was quite pleased how he stepped up with Hanselman sitting out.

“Will Dunstan leading the way was really awesome,” Hautz said. “He had a rough year last year, kind of fell off the horse. So to see someone get back in the saddle and not be afraid and get after it in the first race, it was awesome to see.”

Midview was led by Jared Robinson, who, for the second year in a row, finished second behind Luke Snyder of Rittman. Last year as a freshman, Snyder broke the course record with a time of 16:27.2 and this year he shattered his own mark with a 15:49.7 clocking. This year Robinson ran a personal best time of 16:20.4.

“The goal was to pace off him and see how I felt, but I kind of fell off once we got to the second entrance into the woods,” Robinson said. “But it led to a nice PR, which I’m pretty happy with. I like to see PRs because that means the hard work that our team does pays off. Everybody had a nice race. I’m completely happy with how everybody did.”