Mentor cross country teams ‘grinding’ during pandemic paying off

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

What initially was a negative for some members of the Mentor boys and girls track and field teams last spring has turned into a positive months later.

The payoff of the sobering news all Ohio high school spring sports were canceled because of the novel coronavirus is there this fall for Coach Bill Dennison’s Mentor cross country runners.

The goal remains the same for the Division I Cardinals as the cross country postseason begins Oct. 24 at Madison High School, the site of the D-I, II and III district meets.

“Our goal is always to make it to the state meet, and every year we’re in the hunt,” said Dennison. “The boys missed by one point last year, and the girls made it to state. That’s always our focus.”

Another point of focus was made months ago following the cancellation of the track and field season. It wasn’t complicated, said Dennision, other than having each member of his boys and girls teams download the running app Strava, which allows runners to track not only their own miles, but everyone in their group.

The next step was more simple: Grind, as in Mentor runners working their way through mile after mile with the end game being the cross country postseason.

During the stay-at-home orders from Gov. Mike DeWine, which did allow for outdoor exercise, Cardinals runners got their work in — mostly on their own. Eventually, teammates who lived close to each other or close friends began pairing up. Bonds and friendships grew tighter while miles upon miles were accumulated.

“You can tell the kids that really bought into summer, which is usually an eight-week window,” said Dennison. “You double that to 16 weeks (with the spring). These kids just went out and ran. We were able to gain a solid two months of training, and a lot of those kids took advantage of that.”

All the while, Dennison watched on his phone the progress of not only his daughter, Savannah, who is Mentor’s top runner, but all of them, his entire crew.

“It was great to watch,” said Dennison. “As a coach, I could just be on my phone, ‘Oh, who ran today?’ ”

The coach added to the work by awarding running T-shirts based on the miles his boys and girls ran on Strava, and the result was watching some top 400 miles in a three-month period.

Time reductions come in all variations, but one of the biggest payoff from the extra work was freshman Annie Berrow, who ran at Shore Middle School last season as an eighth-grader. Her 5K time then was 27 minutes. By the end of the summer, she clocked in at 19:59.5. Berrow’s season-best time of 19:28 ranks sixth in the area this season.

Other freshmen have also come into Mentor’s varsity program more established and comfortable, thanks to the work put in with other teammates.

“These freshmen came in and got miles they normally wouldn’t have,” said Dennison.

The coach’s daughter, Savannah Dennison, is a sophomore but is already one of the leaders and the team’s most talented runner after a 21st-place finish at last year’s D-I state meet. Her best time this season (18:23) ranks second in the area to two-time D-II state champion Ella Gilson (18:17) of Hawken.

There’s balance throughout the Cardinals’ lineup with the likes of Berrow, Kate Szep and Rylee Yocum posting times this season at or less than 20 minutes.

“We focused more on the longer workouts — like tempos and thresholds — and just longer runs,” said Savannah. “The more miles we could do we knew would be more beneficial now because we would get the bigger base in the end.”

There’s also great balance on the boys side, and that was on display at the Oct. 17 Greater Cleveland Conference meet at Strongsville, where the Cardinals’ top runners Matt Biddell, Dominic Ricco, Keaton Hahn and Joshua Risko finished sixth through ninth, but were separated by just two seconds — ranging from 16:36 to 16:38.

“Coaches were texting me, ‘How did (your boys) do that?’ I don’t know,” said Bill Dennison. “I do know their workouts were all together, and I think this all started back in April and May.”

Ricco — whose season best time of 16:33 ranks seventh in the area — agreed on the offseason work being a boost. Couple that with wanting to improve on last season’s ninth-place finish at the regional meet (one spot out of a state berth), and it’s not difficult to understand the boys team’s motivation.

“High mileage each week, and trying to stay consistent during the pandemic,” said Ricco. “When the stay-at-home order was gone, we started getting together in little groups. … It was a lot of grinding so that when we got to the season, the hard stuff we could easily do.”