Staff photo / Preston Byers Lowellville’s Nate Yon competes in Tuesday’s Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference cross country championship in McDonald.

McDONALD — The hometown team captured both the boys and girls team titles at Tuesday’s Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference (MVAC) Championships.

While the top spot in the boys race eluded them, the Blue Devils of McDonald edged out second-place Garfield and third-place Southeast in the team standings to capture both league titles at Woodland Park.

“They got the job done,” McDonald coach Robin Kapalko said. “We’re a little beat up – nagging injuries – but all in all, I think we did a nice job.

“You just got to push through. Fortunately, we have depth on our team that really helps when somebody’s not having the best race, and the next man moves up in the pecking order and fills in the gap.”

Blue Devils sophomore Naomi Sheesley repeated as the girls individual champion, widening the gap between to second place from 42.82 seconds last year to 47.41 on Tuesday despite the race proving to be “a little hot.”

“It gets tough,” she said of being the frontrunner. “Sometimes it’s pretty mentally challenging, but that’s just when you have to trust your training and your coach so you can push through it. You learn to push through that.”

Boys winner Nate Yon led most of the way Tuesday as well, although the Lowellville senior had Joey Cappuzzello right behind him just as long. Both Yon and Cappuzzello, the latter of whom finished third a year ago when then-teammate Carson Klase beat Yon by four seconds, massively improved their respective times from the 2024 MVAC Championships.

Cappuzzello made a leap from 17:24.12 last year to 17:00.66 on Tuesday, while Yon improved by nearly 29 seconds, running a personal-best 16:48.86 to win after a mark of 17:17.78 last October.

“It definitely wasn’t easy,” Yon said. “It was a challenge, but I tried to feel strong mentally.”

Unlike Sheesley, who ran by it and relaxed after her win, Yon wasted little time ringing the winner’s bell affixed to a tree near the finish line.

“It was really satisfying,” Yon said of the win after the 2024 second-place showing. “I’ve wanted to win it since last year, so it was fun to do it this year.”

LOWELLVILLE TRENDING UPWARD

In addition to Nate Yon, his younger brother, freshman Steven Yon, finished fourth, and sophomore Jayden Coon placed 11th, which helped the Rockets earn sixth in the boys team standings, behind McDonald, Garfield, Southeast, last year’s champion Mineral Ridge and Jackson-Milton.

Lowellville head coach Eric Grow expressed satisfaction with his team’s performance and what it could mean moving forward.

“Districts are coming up,” Grow said. “We’re hoping to have maybe a chance to get out to the region. We’ve never done it in school history. We think we have a shot this year. I’m really proud of all the guys, from top to bottom. We had PRs for our first guy to our last guy, who dropped under 27 [minutes] for the first time. So it’s just showing that no matter where they are sitting in the standings, they’re all happy and working hard at what they’re doing.”

Steven Yon placed second in last year’s middle-school race, and this year, he turned his ankle near the beginning of the race, according to Grow. Still, the freshman turned in a time of 18:09.74, only finishing behind his brother and McDonald’s Cappuzzello brothers, Joey and Owen, the latter of whom is also a freshman.

Lowellville, McDonald and many other local teams will be back in action Saturday when they race in the Legends Cross Country Meet at the Trumbull County Fairgrounds in one of the final events before district meets begin Oct. 18.