Underclassmen won both the Boy's and Girl's Race of Champions at yesterdays Midwest Meet of Champions. Freshmen Alena Sapienza-Wright of DuPont Manual (Ky) fought off Upper Arlington Jr. Anne Heuerman and freshman Kathleen Simms of Sacred Heart Academy (Ky) to win the girl's race. Ohio #4 ranked, Jr. Luke Wagner of St. Ignatius won the boy's race.
Girl's Varsity Race
Freshman, Alena Sapienza-Wright, Ky #3, won in 18:29.31 finishing just steps ahead of Jr.Anne Heuerman of Upper Arlington (18:30.47) and Freshman Kathleen Simms of Sacred Heart (18:32.24). Simms is the #6 ranked girl in Ky. The race was close going into the last mile with So. Rebecca Craddock of Brunswick having pushed the pace the first mile and a half. SVSM Jr. Rachel Iacofano took the lead going into the last mile and as the girls went back into the woods and headed toward the finish straight, Sapienza-Wright , Heuerman and Simms all moved to the front and fought their way to the finish. Iacofano finished 4th in 18:41.83. Craddock was 5th in 18"47.20.
Sacred Heart, #1 KY, led by Kathleen Simms, won the girl's race with 66 points, defeating the #2 ranked Ohio D2 team SVSM, with 95 points. Upper Arlington was 3rd with 104 points. Sacred Heart ran 3, 6, 7, 9, and 42nd.
Video Interview with Sapienza- Wright
Boy's Varsity Race
Jr. Luke Wagner of St. Ignatius (OH #4) said he "felt good the last mile" so he decided to press the pace and his lead on his way to first in the boy's race with a time of 15:40.35. Wagner won by seven seconds over Sr. JT McKay of Northmont (OH #13) who ran 15:47.58. SVSM Sr. Joe Rossetti (OH #13) was 3rd in 15:53.63 and Wagner's Ignatius teammate, Jr. Tom Sullivan (OH#41) was 4th in 15:56.68.
The Boy's team race was close with Dublin Coffman edging out St. Ignatius for the top spot, scoring 80 points to Ignatius' 85. Coffman was led by Jr. Simon Alford who finished 6th in 16:02.48. The Coffman boy's ran 6, 10, 13, 22 and 29th. The top three boys were seperated by just 8.14 seconds. Sr. Steve Riley-Popovich was 1oth and Sr.Zach Bons was 13th. The St. Ignatius boy's ran 1, 4, 20, 26 and 34th.
