Steele girls tie with defending state champs Brecksville at SWV Preview

The Steele girls cross country team opened the 2008 season by tying defending state champion Brecksville at Saturday's SWC Preview meet at Lorain County Community College.

Amherst placed three girls in the top 10 overall in this annual early season test of SWC teams.

"Obviously, we're pleased with the final score," Amherst coach Terry Kemp said later. "Brecksville is a fine team, and being close to them is a very encouraging sign for our team. The conditions were far from perfect, and the temperature definitely played a major role in the race. Still, it was a positive start to the year."

Senior Jane Lehman finished in fourth Saturday (21:04) to lead the Comets. Sophomore Kasey Schuler (6th, 21:31) and senior Jessica Bartholomew (7th, 21:32) were close behind. Senior Alyssa Bove (14th, 22:27) and freshman Sarah Walters (24th, 23:22) also scored for Amherst in Saturday's race. Sophomore Devan Molnar (30th, 23:34) cut more than 40 seconds from her best time of 2007 to finish sixth for the Comets, and junior Abbie Hornyak (36th, 24:05) rounded out the varsity in Saturday's race.

With its largest junior varsity squad ever taking the course Saturday, Amherst had hopes of returning to the dominance the JV team enjoyed in the 90s when they won 8 of 10 conference titles. Sophomore Amanda Yanosko (53rd, 24:52) ran a career best time to lead the Comets JV at LCCC. Freshman Emma McGuire (61, 25:10), junior Kelsey Anderson (63rd, 25:28), and freshman Katie Sooy-Schultz (65th, 25:39) all finished in the top 70 overall for the Lady Comets. Freshman Katie Orseno (78th, 26:16), junior Katie Kulasa (79th, 26:21), and junior Julia Scrofano (82nd, 26:28) also placed on the JV team Saturday.

Sophomore Megan Borgsteadt (84th, 26:44), freshman Georgie Kaurich (85th, 27:06), sophomore Alexandra Jones (87th, 27:16), freshman Amanda Wymer (88th, 27:21), and sophomore Cami Forbush (90th, 27:24) also contributed for the Comets on Saturday. Freshman Alison Gillam (95th, 28:07) and juniors Lizzy Cooksey (101st, 28:35), Briana Salter (105th, 29;13), and Leanna Griebe (107th, 29:33) also finished for the Comets on a hot and humid Saturday morning.

"So many of our JV girls were experiencing their first race at the Preview Meet," Kemp said. "Half of the 16 JV we ran were in their first high school cross country meet. Now that they have had a chance to race, we can really help them to start improving even more."

The girls cross country team competes again at LCCC this Saturday in the Avon Lake Early Bird Invitational. The varsity girls race is set to go off at 9:30, with the JV girls running at 10:30 a.m. and the Open race girls competing at 12:30 p.m..