4. 2011 Regional Cross Country Meet

Our goal was right in front of us. The stars were lining up and we were toeing the line waiting for the gun to go. Our nerves were all over the place. Our thoughts were flying everywhere. This was everything we had been training for. If we did what we had to we would be the second boys team in school history to get to state in cross country. BOOM. The gun went off. Time to go.

Rewind.

In 2011, our cross country team at Perry was trying to do something that only one other team in school history had done. The only other boys cross country team that qualified for the state meet before made history in the fall of 2008. Ironically my brother was on this team. Or maybe it wasn't ironic that 3 years later I was attempting to do with my team what him and his team once did.

The real thoughts of advancing to state derived in the summer of that season after noticing their had been a change to our regional. Our team had noticed that the teams that usually filled a good part of the spots were out of our regional and into a different one. These schools included state powerhouses CVCA, Akron SVSM (Alma Mater of LeBron) and 5-time defending state champion Woodridge. With these schools out of the mix, was it possible this was our year to do what my brother had once done? But now at this point the focus became who was there versus who wasn't. From our district, we would have to worry about the heavy favorites NDCL and then University. Going into the postseason, we hadn't beat NDCL and hadn't lost to University all year. In the Trumbull district, we had to worry about a progressively strong Cortland Lakeview team and Jefferson (led by a 6'6" basketball player). In the Youngstown district all we realistically had to realistically beat was Marlington (who we beat twice in the regular season by convincing amounts each time). Now, this is where things became to get a little cloudy. A regional in cross country is made up of sixteen teams, or four districts. We now had three districts accounted for, but what about the fourth? The fourth would come from the Cambridge District as we soon learned. However, we were informed the Cambridge District itself is two districts (so we wouldn't know until the last minute which teams are in the district that came to our regional). As we would later learn, Dover, Claymont, Carrollton and Sandy Valley would come to our regional.

After the death of our former teammate and friend Dominic Gagliardi (as you may remember from my last Top 10 article) we had to go out and race the district meet. With that sense of motivation, for the first time we beat a state-ranked team in NDCL to win the district championship. In the next state poll, we appeared for the first time that season.

Now heading into the regional meet the teams from Cambridge were favored to win. Led by Dover, the week before their times were flying compared to the other regions who dealt with muddy conditions and slow times.

Onto the Race.

For the 2nd time, I was set to compete in the Boardman Regional. The only difference is this time we had a strong chance to get to state versus the previous year we got 15th out of 16 teams. It was a rainy day after what had been a rainy season, making the course pretty much a mud pit (also we were the 5th race that day, so the prior races didn't help with that). Our goal was right in front of us. The stars were lining up and we were toeing the line waiting for the gun to go. Our nerves were all over the place. Our thoughts were flying everywhere. This was everything we had been training for. If we did what we had to we would be the second boys team in school history to get to state in cross country. BOOM. The gun went off. Time to go.

The field of 16 teams got off to a strong start in the mud. And throughout the race, our team showed our determination to make it to state. Although I personally had a bad race my team picked me up. And just like that the race was over. All we had to do now was wait and see.

It was one of the longest waits of my life until I saw Sarv (our coach) looking at the results. Then he put 3 fingers up, and we had done it! We got 3rd! I yelled that out to my team who wasn't paying attention and we all went crazy. Sarv ran over to us and we let the celebration begin. For the first time my teammates and I qualified for the state meet. In terms of our placing, we only lost to NDCL and University. Jefferson was the 4th team that qualified. The favored Cambridge District couldn't handle the mud and tanked when it counting, so bad that the team favored to win (Dover) came in 14th.

It was a moment that won't ever be forgotten, as all of our hard work and training finally paid off into creating success for our team, our school and our community.

Have a Great Day,
Fry That Chicken

Results to this race:
http://www.baumspage.com/cc/reg/young/2011/b2.htm