by Devan Matthews

Correspondent

The Nordonia High School boys cross country team opened the 2010 season recently with a fourth-place finish at the Summit County Invitational at Howe Meadow Aug. 28.

Leading the way for the Knights were junior Patrick Osborne and senior Sal DelGuidice.

Osborne finished fifth overall, posting a school-record time of 16:14.6 in the process, while DelGuidice placed 14th overall with an effort of 16:43.85.

Three juniors also put forth exemplary efforts for Nordonia. They were Alex Wilson (26th with a personal-best time of 17:13.83), John Ciocca (36th with a time of 17:28.40); and Troy Mulhall (45th with a personal-best time of 17:39.09).

In addition, freshman Zak Thaxton ran a personal-best time of 18:40.5, and junior Ryan Hustosky also recorded his personal-best time (19:46.01).

Also competing in the varsity race were junior Ryan Turner (20:30.9) and freshman Eric Juskiw (20:50.49).

The Nordonia boys finished with 125 points behind Medina (45 points), Wadsworth (103 points) and Hudson (107 points).

Junior Ben Davis paced the Knights in the open race, finishing 46th with a personal-best time of 19:52.32. Joining Davis in the open race were junior Mike Ryba (21:15), freshman Brandon Hamrick (21:41), Joey Turner (22:48), sophomore Brandon Wolf (21:56), senior Bill Balshin (21:46) and senior Clay Mulhall (24:46).

The Nordonia girls, meanwhile, struggled at the Summit County Invitational, finishing 16th in a field of 17 teams.

The girls were led by sophomore Frankie Simmons, who was 52nd overall with a time of 21:38. Behind her was Emily Porter, who finished 66th with an effort of 22:00.

"Emily is returning from an injury and is working hard to regain her track form, where she set the school record in the 3200," said Nordonia head coach Mike Martin.

Rounding out the varsity performance for the girls were Jackie Kozak (23:23), freshman Kayala Tomak (23:39), Rachel Reed (23:57), and freshman Danny DelGuidice (25:53).

Sophomore Erica Ciocca competed in the open race, but her time was not available.

According to Martin, the girls squad is very young, with three freshmen and six sophomores.

"The team will pick up some needed depth when Asia Martin returns to competition this week," said Martin.

The Nordonia boys and girls teams will compete at the Mentor Cardinal Classic at Garfield Park in Mentor Sept. 4.

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