Staff photo / Greg Macafee Maplewood senior Alex Donaldson crosses the finish line to capture the Division III boys race at the Spartan Invitational with a 16:26.0 clocking.

BOARDMAN — Maplewood’s Alex Donaldson and Caleigh Richards finished off their last Spartan Invitational in style.

The pair of Rockets swept the Division III races Saturday afternoon at one of the premier cross country events in the Midwest. Donaldson edged out Mineral Ridge’s Dom Pappagallo for his first win at the event with a 16:26 clocking.

“I remember racing in the bigger race when I was younger and taking third against the bigger schools,” said Donaldson, who led the Maplewood boys team to a first-place finish in the D-III race. “It feels good to finally win it. It’s a big race for us because our regional meet is here so we love to come here and compete against other teams. The course is tough for everyone else, but we enjoy it. It’s fun to run here.”

Richards erased the competition finishing just over 20 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Rebecca Geiss from Heartland Christian with an 18:29 clocking, a new course record.

“I’m just really blessed to be able to end my senior year strong,” Richards said. “That was my goal, and I’m just so grateful. I give all the glory to God.”

Both runners also led their respective teams to Division III team titles at the event. The Maplewood boys beat second-place finisher Tuscar Valley by 48 points, while the Maplewood girls edged out Mogadore by six points.

Throughout the Division III boys race, Donaldson was caught in a tight battle with Pappagallo. The Ridge senior jumped out to an early lead through the first stretch, which is an uphill section of grass.

By the time runners came around Boardman’s baseball field, Donaldson and Pappagallo were neck and neck and were battling throughout the first lap of the race.

“I went out and took the early lead because it felt like the pack was going out slow, so I wanted to just go out and run my own race,” Pappagallo said. “Then it ended up catching up to me and he (Donaldson) ended up catching me.”

Donaldson and Pappagallo are familiar with each other after facing off in races all over the area. As two of the area’s top runners, they were bound to push each other to the limit, and Donaldson was happy to come out with the win over a talented competitor.

“I’ve been racing Dom for quite a while now, kind of back and forth, so it was good to get him once,” Donaldson said. “We’ve raced a lot, we’ll race again at counties, so it feels pretty good.”

Richards raced a pretty tight race through the first half but created a sizeable gap as it carried on. By the time she came around the final turn, no one was in her rearview mirror.

A year ago, Richards placed third in the same race behind McDonald’s Megan Hipple and Williamstown’s (W.Va.) Alyssa Sauro. Her finish this year demonstrated that she’s exactly where she wants to be in her senior season.

“This showed me that my training is on point and it came out in the course,” Richards said. “I know that I have to keep working though because there are great competitors out there. But it definitely gave me a lot of confidence.”

With so many races under her belt at Boardman, Richards came into the challenging course with plenty of experience. She knew where she wanted to make her moves and how she wanted to pace herself throughout. After that, she just had to play it smart.

“I’ve ran this so many times, I know where it’s at so I just had to not go out stupid and waste energy,” Richards said. “I just had to run it good and take advantage of the downhills.”

The OHSAA Regional Meet will also be held at Boardman, so plenty of racers were able to get a good look at their competition and how they will attack the course later in the year. For most of the local runners, it’s a little bit of an advantage and it also builds up their confidence, knowing how they’ve performed on it before.

“This gives me a good feel of where I’m at because very similar teams will be at regionals so I can definitely base it off of that,” Richards said.

TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK

The Boardman duo of Brock Farris and David D’Altorio wedged their way into a Top 10 finish on Saturday, finishing 8th and 9th in the Division I race. They came in just behind Canfield’s Blake Baker, who recorded a 15:53.2. With their Top 10 finish, both Farris and D’Altorio are ready to attack the rest of the season and are encouraged by their performance on their home course.

“One of the goals was to be Top 10,” D’Altorio said. “So just getting that, it feels good.”

Being able to do it alongside his teammate made it even better.

“I don’t think a lot of people have a teammate like that, so being able to run with him every day and knowing that we’re both really, really good, is something I’m really happy about,” D’Altorio said.

Farris and D’Altorio were both able to take advantage of their home field advantage Saturday and they are hoping to do it again later in the season at regionals.

“We have every little advantage,” Farris said. “We run this every day so we know the best strategy at every corner of this race. We know where to go, where to pass people and where to hold up. We know everything about this course so it gives us a huge advantage for this race and regionals.”

TOP 10 FINISHERS

Behind Donaldson and Pappagallo, McDonald’s Joey Cappuzzello finished 4th with a time of 16:55.1 and Lowellville’s Nathan Yon finished 7th with a 17:15.9 clocking. Sawyer Szabo (Heartland Christian, 17:16.8), Lucas Sokol (Jackson-Milton, 17:20.5) and Brandon Calderwood (Maplewood, 17:25.9) rounded out the Top 10.

On the girls side of Division III, Lowellville’s Sophia Yon ran a 19:40.2 for a 5th place finish while Chalker’s Abby Castle ran a 20:30.4 to finish 7th. Jackson-Milton’s Faith Sullivan was the 10th place finisher with a 20:48.7 clocking.

In Division II, South Range’s Charles Reigrut clocked a 16:35.6 for a 6th place finish.