Staff photo / Neel Madhavan. Led by Maplewood’s Caleigh Richards (front blue) the Division III girls race of the Spartan Invitational kicks off at Boardman High School Saturday afternoon.

BOARDMAN — There’s a point in every season where the postseason starts to come into focus.

Practices become a little harder and the competition becomes a little tougher. For local cross country teams, Saturday’s Spartan Invitational is typically that turning point.

“I started off the day on our bus telling both the (boys) and (girls) teams — I told them we have 28 days till districts, we have 35 days until regionals and we have 42 days until states,” said Canfield cross country coach Eric O’Brien. “Every day from here going forward, we need to do good and give a solid effort. Today’s a day when we really have to make everything happen. We’re using this as our stepping stone to get to districts and regionals and on.”

The Spartan Invitational is one of the largest cross country meets not only in Ohio, but across the entire Midwest. About 450 teams from roughly 150 different school districts from Ohio and the surrounding states, with more than 5,200 runners, flocked to Boardman throughout the day Saturday.

One of the biggest reasons why the Spartan Invite is as popular as it is, is because it is also the site of the OHSAA Regional meet for Divisions I, II and III.

It allows teams, coaches and runners to test out and get a feel for the same course that they will run in about a month, while also giving them a chance to run against a field of runners similarly as deep to what they’ll see at regionals.

“It gives us a good opportunity to take positives away from today and the negatives, hopefully we learn from it,” said McDonald girls cross country coach Robin Kapalko. “(For example), this is where I didn’t run so well or I’ve really got to push myself through the second mile, that kind of thing and then make adjustments.”

The Boardman course is unique in that it can yield to a variety of different running styles with its changes in elevation, blind turns and changes in terrain.

“It could be a tactical race — someone could go out and take the lead and push it from the beginning,” O’Brien said. “Because you have some hills, you have long down hills and some blind turns, you have to be prepared for whatever the (other runners) throw at you, depending on who shows up that day.”

Several local runners turned in strong showings in one of the first major showcase races of the cross country season.

In the Division I boys varsity race, Canfield junior Blake Baker finished 4th with a time of 16:04.9. Boardman sophomore David D’Altorio was also a top-10 finisher, taking 9th with a time of 16:20.2, while Spartans teammate Brock Farris was just behind him in 12th (16:27.0).

“Blake ran well — he ran a smart race,” O’Brien said. “He’s very knowledgeable of his abilities and his strengths and started the race off smartly, not going too fast. He was able to pick off guys throughout the race. We know that’s his strength and he ran to it today.”

Local runners had their best showing in the Division III girls race.

McDonald senior Megan Hipple finished 2nd (19:02.0), Maplewood junior and two-time defending Division III state champion Caleigh Richards took 3rd (19:26.7), while Lowellville junior Sophia Yon was 4th (19:37.4).

“We’re always pushing each other and it really just makes all our races competitive, which is great,” Hipple said. “We each have the opportunity to get better off of each other.”

The runner who took first, Alyssa Sauro from Williamstown, W. Va., finished almost a full minute ahead of the trio and is ranked as the third-best girls cross country runner in the U.S.

“I wanted to see how long I could stay with her,” Hipple said. “I tried to push myself today as best as I could. It wasn’t my best race, but there’s always time to get better and have a better race.”

Richards said she’s been dealing with some nagging injuries, including a lower back issue, this fall, which she added has impacted her performances so far this season.

“(Saturday), kind of gave me some confidence that I felt a lot better than I had been, so I’m just thankful for that,” Richards said.

As a team, the McDonald girls also finished strong, tallying 3rd against a deep field. All seven of the Blue Devils runners finished inside the top 51 out of the 246 total runners in the race.

Gabby Colon took 9th (21:35.9), Mariah Bregar was 23rd (22:24.2), Kylie Flere was 30th (22:46.7), Lillian Cappuzzello was 37th (23:08.7), Rita Domitrovich was 50th (23:27.7) and Brooke Bosheff finished 51st (23:29.0).

“We’re getting closer — we really wanted to beat out Mogadore because they are in our region,” Kapalko said. “We’re cutting the gap, we raced against them last week at Walsh Jesuit and they beat us by nine, today they beat us by five, so we’re getting there. We had some surprises a little bit in our order with how our girls finished, which always makes you a competitive team if the order keeps changing. We saw some good things today, so we’re just going to keeping looking to the end and working hard the rest of the season.”

OTHER NOTABLE FINISHERS

In the Division III boys race, Maplewood finished third as a team, while Mineral Ridge placed fifth and McDonald took sixth.

Mineral Ridge sophomore Dominic Pappagallo came in 3rd with a time of 16:54.8, while older brother Timmy Pappagallo took 17th (17:54.2).

For Maplewood, junior Alex Donaldson finished 11th (17:22.4) and senior Bryson Himes came in 15th (17:49.2).

McDonald’s top individual finishers were freshman Joey Cappuzzello in 35th (18:32.9) and senior Santino Trifilitte in 36th (18:35.0).

In the Division II boys race, Lakeview senior Zac Haley placed 6th with a time of 16:43.5, while Hubbard’s Brayden Murray came in 11th (17:13.4).

In the Division II girls race, Salem was third in the team standings, led by sophomore Maggie Hopple in 9th (20:14.0), sophomore Maddie Hall in 31st (21:25.8), senior Ella Double in 32nd (21:27.1), junior Megan Stafford in 34th (21:43.1), freshman Garyn Rohm in 38th (21:55.5), junior Dana Griffith in 49th (22:21.4) and freshman Paige Menough 56th (22:32.4).

West Branch sophomore Clarice Martin finished 16th (20:46.1).

In the Division I girls race, top local finishers included Boardman sophomore Gabby Vennetti in 27th (20:36.4), Warren G. Harding sophomore Sophie Gardner in 42nd (21:04.5) and Boardman senior Lauren Bero in 51st (21:15.6)

nmadhavan@tribtoday.com

Boardman Invitational

Top 10 results

Division I Boys

1 John Bertram, 10 15:57.0 North Allegheny

2 James Howell, 12 16:00.5 Solon

3 Dylan Wood, 11 16:01.2 Copley

4 Blake Baker, 11 16:04.9 Canfield

5 Noah Johnson, 12 16:08.5 Hoover

6 Nate Julien, 12 16:10.5 Firestone

7 Jake Sebaugh, 11 16:12.4 Medina

8 Connor Reed, 11 16:14.0 Mass. Perry

9 David D’Altorio, 10 16:20.2 Boardman

10 Elijah Hadler, 12 16:24.2 Med Highland

Division I Girls

1 Wren Kucler, 10 18:40.0 6:01 North Allegheny

2 Daniela Scheffler, 10 19:06.5 6:10 Uniont. Lake

3 Jayla Atkinson, 11 19:24.9 6:16 Stow-Munroe Falls

4 Eva Kynaston, 11 19:30.1 6:17 North Allegheny

5 Erin McGoey, 11 19:33.7 6:19 North Allegheny

6 Grace Rowley, 12 19:34.5 6:19 North Allegheny

7 Brianna Chaves, 11 19:38.3 6:20 Rocky River

8 Mia Heine, 11 19:39.7 6:21 Medina

9 Caroline Adams, 11 19:41.7 6:21 Mt. Lebanon

10 Elise Ashcroft, 9 19:45.8 6:23 Moon Area

Division II Boys

1 Colin Cernansky, 11 16:18.0 8:09 Marlington

2 Nash Minor, 12 16:20.5 8:10 Marlington

3 Michael Nicholls, 11 16:20.9 8:10 Marlington

4 Nick Garcia-Whitko, 11 16:40.3 8:20 Hawken

5 Dale Hall, 11 16:41.3 8:21 Hampton

6 Zac Haley, 12 16:43.5 8:22 Lakeview

7 Seth Singer, 12 16:48.9 8:24 Woodridge

8 Ben Myers, 12 16:55.4 8:28 Fair. Park Fairview

9 Cohen Boyce, 12 16:58.0 8:29 Marlington

10 Sam Su, 11 17:02.8 8:31 Woodridge

Division II Girls

1 Jaylee Wingate, 12 18:29.0 5:58 Norwayne

2 Bella Graham, 12 18:37.0 6:00 Marlington

3 Reese Reaman, 11 19:04.3 6:09 Woodridge

4 Hera Hoffee, 12 19:32.0 6:18 Minerva

5 Kevyn Fish, 10 19:32.3 6:18 Hampton

6 Emerson Greene, 11 19:50.1 6:24 Kenston

7 Marissa Boone, 10 19:54.4 6:25 Woodridge

8 Madelyn Begert, 9 20:07.6 6:30 Cf Northwest

9 Maggie Hopple, 10 20:14.0 6:32 Salem

10 Mila Gresh, 11 20:20.4 6:34 Chagrin Falls

Division III Boys

1 Brylan Holland, 12 16:24.3 East Canton

2 Will Baker, 10 16:47.2 Mount Gilead

3 Dominic Pappagallo, 10 16:54.8 Mineral Ridge

4 Chase Trembly, 12 16:56.3 Williamstown

5 Parker Bartlett, 11 16:59.5 Mount Gilead

6 Isaik Schoch, 11 17:00.6 Mapleton

7 Jackson Varner, 9 17:10.7 Waynedale

8 Julian Johnson, 10 17:11.4 Williamstown

9 Reed Supplee, 12 17:12.2 Mount Gilead

10 Michael Couture, 12 17:13.7 Open Door Christian

Division III Girls

1 Alyssa Sauro, 10 18:03.8 Williamstown

2 Megan Hipple, 12 19:02.0 McDonald

3 Caleigh Richards, 11 19:26.7 Maplewood

4 Sophia Yon, 11 19:37.4 Lowellville

5 Kaitlyn Carr, 9 19:49.0 Smithville

6 Rebecca Geiss, 9 19:56.1 Heartland Christian

7 Katie Lane, 11 20:16.0 Mogadore

8 Audrey Wade, 11 20:24.4 East Canton

9 Brianna Winsett, 12 20:50.5 Williamstown

10 Lydia Miller, 11 20:52.6 Marion Center