Bay boys cross country adapts to last-minute change, claims Vermilion Invitational

Winning soothes a lot of frustration, even when you can’t get a school bus to transport your team to a scheduled cross country meet.

Bay’s boys cross country team was supposed to compete Sept.30 in a meet at Gilmour. However, according to Coach Steve Babson, his team was unable to get school transportation to the meet because the buses were needed to get the football team and the band to their game at North Olmsted.

Instead of having the athletes and their parents provide their own transportation to Gilmour, Babson chose instead to compete Oct. 1 in the Obenour Invitational at Vermilion High School. It proved to be a fruitful decision, as the Rockets won the Gold Division, edging Amherst by just two points.

PHOTOS: Vermilion Invitational cross country, Oct. 1, 2022

Bay finished with 62 points to 64 for Amherst, which was led by individual winner Ty Perez. Westlake was third with 78, while Midview was fifth with 85. North Olmsted was sixth with 137, followed by North Ridgeville (182), Olmsted Falls (256) and Lorain (271).

“You’re always happy to have your team get to experience winning a race, no matter where it is,” Babson said. “These were Division I teams, and we’re Division II, so that’s always a bonus.”

Bay, which is ranked 13th in the latest state coaches' poll, was led by Michael Hanselman, who was fourth in 17:02.6. He was followed by James Chilton (8th, 17:19.1), Connor Spellman (12th, 17:33.3), Kieran Ripley (17th, 17:43.9) and Will Dunstan (21st, 17:49.0).

“We ran really well,” Babson said. “We’ve been trying to stress not going out too hard and then moving up in the second half. Our first two, Michael and James, have been going out too fast. Today they ran smarter in the first mile, and it paid off. And Connor Spellman had a breakthrough race today as our third runner.”

For Perez, the race was a welcome return to the winner’s circle after he has battled for months with what he describes as leg fatigue.

“I’ve been struggling with a lot of leg issues,” he said. “Leg fatigue, leg issues. It hurts. It takes away some power through my legs. I feel fatigued right when the race starts, and my legs kind of lock up. But I’ve been focusing a lot more on my endurance so I can try to overcome that and get something else in place instead of that.”

Two years ago as a freshman, Perez had a phenomenal season that saw him win multiple invitational titles. He also was the second freshman to cross the finish line in the Division I state meet. He would take the lead right from the opening gun and dare people to run with him. This race didn’t go quite that way for the junior, but he did win by 16 seconds over Westlake’s Jeremy Snyder with a time of 16:27.0, his first invitational win of the season.

“I wanted to lead from the first step, but I just couldn’t do it,” he said. “The first mile was 5:08. It was slower than I wanted it to be. My legs were pretty tired at the beginning, so I wasn’t able to get a powerful start. But I knew my endurance would keep up and I would be able to do better as the race went on.”

Perez took the lead just after the mile mark and gradually pulled away, giving Amherst coach Rob Glatz reason to smile.

“There were many good things to pull from today, but one good thing was seeing Ty get out there and take a commanding lead,” he said. “Also, a big positive was to see our pack stick close together. We’ve been really focusing on that.”

There was a bit of a gap for Amherst after Perez, but the next four finishers for the Comets all crossed the line within six seconds of each other. Luke Bowlsby, who is battling health issues of his own, placed 14th for Amherst, followed by Henry Isaacs in 15th, Ben Susi in 16th and Jacob Michalak in 18th.

“We’re still really high mileage right now,” Glatz said. “I’m really proud of these boys for putting themselves on the line today. We’ve been talking a lot about going out and running with courage, and they did that today. They did everything they could to stick together, and we’re heading in the right direction for a championship season.”

Despite holding out several runners for various reasons, the Bay girls placed second to Brunswick in the Gold Division race.