Comet girls CC runners reflect on league, district titles

Press Sports Editor
sports@presspublications.com

Genoa girls cross country coach Shane Pierson is proud of how his team hit their stride this year.
The rookie coach saw his Comets win league and district titles while coming up just two places short of a trip to the state tournament.
The list of accolades doesn’t end there.
Genoa also won the Ottawa County Invitational and finished second at the Turtle Creek Invite and at the Huron Invite, respectively, took third at the Mel Brody Invite and was 13th (out of 31 teams) at the Tiffin Carnival.
“This was my first year, and I am stepping in to replace someone (Brett Strickland) who has been in it for 10 years. I didn’t need to try to do anything crazy,” said Pierson. “I tried to do things that kept with the values and traditions that make the program great.”
At a Division II regional tournament, Stella Rethman led the Comets with a 21st-place finish in 19 minutes, 52.84 seconds, just five places and 26 seconds short of qualifying for the state meet.
Tatum Szych was 29th in 20:21.08, followed by Lindsey Brown (54th in 21:08.47), Olivia Martin (65th in 21:51.39) and Sydney Harp (69th in 22:07.46). Mya Rethman was 75th in 22:22.99 and Raegan Schlatter was 94th in 23:54.95.
Just one week earlier, Genoa won its second consecutive district title, this one coming even after moving up from Division III to Division II this season.
Szych finished third at the Northern Buckeye Conference Tournament in 19:49.0, followed by Stella Rethman (4th in 20:14.7), Brown (7th in 21:18.0), Martin (10th in 21:46.1) and Mya Rethman (15th in 22:02.8) to round out the scoring. Harp finished 16th in 22:10.9 and Schlatter was 27th in 23:29.9.
It was the second NBC title for the Comets, who held off Eastwood, which was going for a four-peat.
Szych, Brown and Stella Rethman earned first-team honors in the conference, Martin earned second-team honors and Mya Rethman was given honorable-mention distinction.
A key moment in the season came when, prior to the Tiffin Carnival, Pierson changed things up a bit.
“I thought, overall, early in the season, we were running all right, but we just weren’t hitting the times. We were going into the Tiffin Carnival, and I challenged the kids,” Pierson said. “I felt like we were running and not racing. Twenty-two of our runners had a PR at Tiffin. It led to a lot of success going forward.
“We got off to a slow start, but the kids continued to work hard. It’s a grind, for sure. I’m very proud of the success they were able to have,” Pierson said.
The Comets began to hit their stride in the week before the NBC Meet at the Huron Invite.
“There was some good competition there,” said Pierson. “Ottawa Hills was ranked third in Division III, we came up a little short.”
The team will only lose Schlatter from the varsity.
It’s a challenge with four of the girls playing other sports — Szych, Harp and Stella Rethman also play soccer while Mya Rethman plays volleyball, too.
“At a smaller school,” said Pierson, “you have to work around it.”
Pierson gave a recap of the team banquet, where the Comets were honored.
“I hate to single one person out, but my lone junior, Olivia Martin, we give the ‘heart of a champion’ award because she took a step forward in terms of leadership. Simone Eli has the school record. Tatum went 19:49 at our league meet and was seven seconds off Simone Eli’s record. Stella ran a 19:52,” said Pierson. “We look forward to having them lead and look forward to them moving the (record) down. There are so many kids I could name. Mya was my surprise, I had coached her in track. She ran some of her best races the last two to three weeks.”