High school boys cross country: Dennison, Kearns earn individual titles, Hawken takes D-II team title at Madison District

The following article was posted on the News-Herald’s website. Congratulations Billy and Michael!

It was a tall order for Mentor’s Billy Dennison and Michael Petrovic to try to keep Solon’s James Howell at bay in the Division I district meet at Madison. But the duo was able to do just that as they finished 1-2 for the Cardinals.

Dennison held the lead from the beginning of the meet and had his sights set on the individual title. The sophomore posted a 15:53.98 to take the top spot.

The challenge then fell to Petrovic to finish the job in a back-and-forth battle with Howell. As they entered the final stretch, Howell was ahead but Petrovic proved to have the better kick as he surged ahead to take second with a 16:15.20.

“It makes it easier on both of us knowing that there’s two of us and one of him,” Dennison said. “I wanted to go out early knowing that he has a great kick. Michael was able to stay with him the rest of the way.”

Petrovic added: “We were able to all stay together and Billy pulled away in the second mile. But James and I were never able to shake each other for that second place. He would take it, I would come back, but he made a move on the back stretch where I thought he had me. But I saw he wasn’t pumping as hard down the stretch and was able to surge and get ahead”

The two helped propel Mentor to a third-place team finish with 107 points, as the Cardinals advanced to their 50th consecutive regional meet. Solon took home the team title with 49 points, followed by Chardon with 93.