Team work key to Ironton’s 7th place finish at state meet
Published 5:20am Monday, November 8, 2010

COLUMBUS — Together we can.
That motto seemed to be the key for the Ironton Fighting Tigers whose boys’ cross country team not only qualified for the state meet but finished seventh in the Division III race.
“It was a unique group,” said Ironton coach Tim Thomas. “They all worked hard and pushed each other and encouraged each other since they were freshmen. It was a great year.”
It marked the first time in school history that Ironton had an entire team qualify for the state meet.
Seniors Gary Monroe, Adam Stumbo, Pierce Reeves and Dustin Moritz were the leaders for the team, but Thomas said it should serve as a motivation for the younger runners.
“It’s been a great four years with our four seniors, but we have some great underclassmen who will be able to enjoy their time at State.” said Thomas.
Junior Levi Runyon said the seniors helped push him to become a better runner.
“Hopefully we can do it again,” said Runyon. “These four guys gave us great leadership and showed us how to win.”
“It was great (to run in the state meet,” said Tyler Lawless. “I wanted to break 20 (minutes), but it was a good race. I’m going to run all summer.”

Ironton runners 7th in state XC
Published 12:48am Sunday, November 7, 2010
COLUMBUS — From nowhere to Top 10.
The Ironton Fighting Tigers’ cross country team began the season unranked and not even a thought on anyone’s minds. Ironton not only proved the critics wrong as the won the district title and finished runners-up in the regional meet, on Saturday they finished seventh in the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division III state cross country meet.
Ironton had 198 points, just one behind Cincinnati Summit Country Day. Independence won the title with 85 points followed by McDonald with 94.
“We showed well for ourselves,” said Ironton coach Tim Thomas. “The four seniors had a great year and we’ll miss them, but we have some good younger kids behind them and we look forward to our time with them.”
Senior Gary Monroe was low man for Ironton as he finished 47th overall in the field with a 16:50.5 time. Senior Pierce Reeves was six spots back with a 16:54.4 time followed by senior Dustin Moritz at No. 77 with a 17:11.4 time, junior Levi Runyon ran 17:34.6 to place No. 97, and senior Adam Stumbo was No. 107 with a 17:50.4 clocking.
Rounding out Ironton’s top seven entries was Tyler Lawless at 20:30.5 and Cody Gee at 25:18.7.
Monroe — who led Ironton in each meet the past two seasons — was happy with the team’s performance but somewhat disappointed in his own.
“I don’t know what happened,” said Monroe. “ I hit the two-mile mark and I hit a lull. I didn’t quit running. I was still trying hard, but I couldn’t move.
“But it was an awesome season. The only way it could have been better is if I had a faster time (today). I wouldn’t change anything. We were district champs and regional runners-up and seventh in the state.”
Stumbo was excited to be part of the historic season that saw Ironton put a team in the state meet for the first time.
“I’m just happy to be here,” said Stumbo. “We ran the best we could today. This year we came together as a team. We supported each other and we ran together and got our times closer together.”
Reeves said the meet was something he could never have imagined.
“It was surreal,” said Reeves. “Three seconds after the race started you heard the crowd and the feeling was amazing. This was the best team we’ve ever had.”
“We had a great year,” said Moritz who put up a personal-best time.
“We had a rough start, then we got healthy and we started to get better. When we came back from (a meet in) North Carolina, we made a big push and got to the state.”
Runyon said it was teamwork that made the difference.
“We all worked together. We knew we could do it and we did the best we could. Hopefully, we can do it again,” said Runyon who is only a junior.
Ironton Lady Fighting Tigers’ Taylor Hacker ran in the Division III meet for the second straight year, the first Ironton runner to qualify for the state meet on two occasions.
Hacker ran a 20:04.8 time to finish 59th in the field of 144 runners. Tammy Berger of Versailles won the race with a time of 18:13.3.
“It was a lot tougher race,” said Hacker. “I want to (get my personal record) and I wanted to finish among the top 25. It was just faster than last year.”
Hacker said running last year was an asset when she stepped onto the Scioto Downs infield for the start of the race.
“I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be. Last year I was extremely nervous,” said Hacker.

November 1, 2010
PICKERINGTON — Aw, what the heck. Let’s just all go.
The top 16 runners and top four teams earn a berth in the state meet. The Ironton Fighting Tigers cross country team decided to not to worry about who might get a state berth individually by qualifying as a team.
Ironton had its best finish as a team in school history by finishing second in the Division III regional cross country meet Saturday to earn a trip to the state meet next weekend at Scioto Downs in Columbus.
“It was a great day,” said Ironton coach Tim Thomas. “All their hard work paid off. We finished the season strong and I hope we have one more good week in us.”
Baltimore Liberty Union had 94 points to win the meet with Ironton a close second with 105 points. Bellaire St. John was third at 135 and Galion Northmor fourth with 144 points in the 16-team field.
Senior Gary Monroe led the way as Ironton continued its remarkable run through the tournament.
Monroe was ninth overall with a 16:44.2 time. His time was actually the same as Sean Kennedy of Fredericktown but it was a pick ’em in a photo finish.
Senior Pierce Reeves finished at No. 19 with a 17:15.4 time and senior Dustin Moritz was No. 24 with a 17:32.6 time.
Finishing at No. 39 was senior Adam Stumbo with a 17:59.6 clocking while junior Levi Runyon ran an 18:18.6 to finish in the 53rd spot.
Also running for Ironton were Cody Wise at 20:08.3 and Tyler Lawless who had a 20:20.9 time.
Each team enters seven runners with the top five runners scored.
“We had pretty good times for all of our runners. We even had a few personal records,” said Thomas.
Coal Grove junior Jacob Pauley ran an 18:10.2 and finished No. 45 in the field.
As for the girls, Ironton didn’t qualify as a team but senior Taylor Hacker earned a second straight trip to the state meet as she finished 13th overall. Hacker ran a 20:20.2 time as Ironton finished 12th as a team.
Hacker is the first Ironton runner to qualify for the state meet twice.
“Taylor ran well but she can run better. She had a little bit of a head cold and was congested, so we need to get her healthy,” said Thomas.
Galion Northmor won the meet with 94 points followed by Fredericktown with 117, Granview Heights 122 and Johnstown-Monroe had 153.
Ironton was 12th with 253 points and Fairland had 285 points to place No. 14 as a team.
Ariel Schweickart was next for Ironton in the No. 45 slot with a 21:53.6 time. She was followed by Maggie Thomas at No. 83 with a 23:09 time, Kaylie Sturgill No. 96 at 23:57.4, and Shannon Walker had a 24:41.4 clocking to place No. 106.
Hannah Cronacher ran a 25:08.2 time to finish in the No. 110 slot and Ashton McMackin was No. 116 with a 25:37.9 time.
Carrie Tanner had a 26:02.4 time to place No. 119 and Carmen Webb was No. 125 with a 26:52.4 time.
The boys Division III meet begins at 11:05 a.m. while the Division II starts at 11:50. The girls’ Division III will run at 1:20 p.m.

RIO GRANDE — The district cross country road ran through the hillside at the University of Rio Grande.

On Saturday it also ran through the Ironton Fighting Tigers.

The Ironton boys’ team won the Division III district championship while the Lady Fighting Tigers were runners-up.

Not only did Ironton come away with two team trophies, but seniors Gary Monroe and Taylor Hacker claimed first place overall in the individual championship.

Monroe ran a blistering 17:14.19 time with teammate Pierce Reeves finishing second with a 17:33.59 time.

Ironton claimed the first, second, fifth, sixth and seventh spots to total a mere 18 points. Ironton had a team time total of 1:29.21.

Fairland’s girls had 88 points as a team with Ironton second with 124 points. Hacker took the individual title as she easily outdistanced the field with a 20:48.40 clocking.

“It was about as a good a day of cross country as cross country can get,” said Ironton coach Tim Thomas.

“We’ve had good individuals and some good teams qualify for regionals, but to have a team champion and team runner-up and a boy and girl champion, it’s hard to beat a day like that.”

The top four teams in Div. III qualify for the regional meet this Saturday at Pickerington North High School. The top 16 runners not on a qualifying team also advance.

Ironton’s Levi Runyon was fifth at 18:01.27 followed by Dustin Moritz at 18:16.10 and Adam Stumbo right behind with an 18:16.83 time.

“We have kids who have bought in and they were willing to do the work,” said Thomas. “We’ve had to share kids with volleyball, tennis, band and cheerleading, and they’ve still been good about getting their work done.”

Also running for Ironton were Cody Wise who was 27th at 20:17.93 and Tyler Lawless 35th at 20:55.17.

Other boys’ teams qualifying were runner-up Leesburg Fairfield, Wheelersburg and Federal Hocking.

Besides Hacker, Ariel Schweickart was 10th with a 22:01.92 time She was followed by Maggie Thomas as No. 22 with a 23:27.19, No. 59 Shannon Walker with a 25:44.78 clocking, Hannah Cronacher at No. 74 with a 26:33.12 time, Kaylie Sturgill No. 78 at 26:51.41, and Ashton McMackin No. 84 with a 27:11.14 time.

Qualifying in the girls’ meet besides Fairland and Ironton were North Adams and Westfall.

WESTWOOD — Coming into the Fairview Invitational, Ironton’s Gary Monroe felt like he was running slow. He sure did speed up Saturday morning.

Monroe finished first in the varsity boys competition and set a course record at 16:37.27 after staying ahead of the pack for a majority of the race.

The senior said after keeping a slower pace in his previous race that staying with the frontrunners would push him to higher finish in the end.

“Last week I ran slow and I just couldn’t catch back up,” Monroe said. “I learned from the last race, and I came out today and said let’s go hard and see what I get. I was coming through the mile-and-a-half mark and felt something so I just put on a surge.”  

After the first mile, Monroe was neck and neck with Ashland’s Jon Renneker. As Monroe pushed toward the front, Renneker started to hold up and fall to the back. Renneker ended up in fourth behind runners from Huntington and Hurricane.

The Tomcat senior said that while he did finish in the top five he could have run a better race.

“I’m not doing as good as I feel I should,” Renneker said. “I wanted to run faster and those guys passing me in the last mile was icing on the cake for the bad. But as bad as it seems to me, I still had a good day.”

In team scores, Ironton finished in third behind Huntington and Hurricane while Ashland came in fourth place. Ironton coach Tim Thomas had four runners finish in the top 16.

Thomas said that his team thrives when facing out-of-state competition and it builds confidence when heading into regional action.

“We’re starting to come together as a team,” Thomas said. “To come over to face against different competition you don’t see often gets you ready for later in the season for our state tournaments. We want to run against good competition and mix up every once in awhile.’’

On the varsity girls’ side, host school Fairview almost came away with a win, but Hurricane was just too strong down the stretch.

The Eagles had Haley Layne and Lyndsey Burke stay with the lead runners for most of the race, but in the end Hurricane’s Tori Dent came out the winner with a time of 20:22.58.

Burke and Layne finished fourth and fifth respectively, but along with Dent, Hurricane finished runners in sixth, seventh and eighth to help push the Redskins to a win.

Fairview coach Becca Stacey said that while her team didn’t come away with the win, they are really starting to hit their stride as runners.

“Everybody improved their times by a minute today so that’s all we can ask for,” Stacey said. “Hurricane is such a tough team, but I think we held pretty well.”

While most of the competition had runners in high school, the Eagles were led by seventh-grader Burke and eighth-grader Layne.

Burke said that no matter what age, her team works hard and the results show off that hard work especially on Fairview’s home course.

“Our team has been practicing really hard,” Burke said. “We practice on this every day, and it helped that we knew the course. It’s comfortable.”

Originally published 03:46 a.m., November 19, 2009
Updated 03:46 a.m., November 19, 2009

Southeast Ohio

2009 Div. III Cross Country

Coaches All-District Girls

Originally published 02:34 a.m., November 2, 2009
Updated 02:34 a.m., November 2, 2009

PICKERINGTON

Originally published 04:27 a.m., October 26, 2009
Updated 04:27 a.m., October 26, 2009

RIO GRANDE

Originally published 04:25 a.m., October 20, 2009
Updated 04:25 a.m., October 20, 2009

CHILLICOTHE

Originally published 04:10 a.m., October 6, 2009
Updated 04:10 a.m., October 6, 2009

PIKETON