Over the past few years, Green’s boys cross country team has had plenty of success.

With the 2008 season, the girls may be looking to follow in their tracks.

At the GlenOak Golden Eagle XC Invitational, Green took second place (90) behind Solon (63) in a 14-team field. Leading the way was freshman Marissa Papp, younger sister of Dylan who is varsity on the men’s team, who finished third. Right behind her was junior Lauren Buser.

Third year coach Jeannie Ritchie was happy with the result.

“We have depth this year, it means so much,” she said. “We have more runners, and the girls are more motivated. It makes it more fun.”

Ritchie has seen improvement across the board from her girls, with everyone running personal bests compared to last season. She said lofty goals have been set.

The immediate impact of freshman Marissa was a surprise.

“I knew she had the talent, but as a freshman, I didn't expect her to be the number one runner,” she said. “Usually it takes a couple of years, gaining experience, to get where she is.”

Marissa is not the only freshman on the varsity squad. Krista Roehlig placed 11th overall and was third girl on the team, and Kristen Bergmeyer placed 46th and was the sixth girl on the team.

The youth provided the needed push to bring home Ritchie’s first invitational trophy.

“I'm so proud of them on their first trophy as runner's up,” Ritchie said. “Their summer training was the key factor to their present success.”

Ritchie said the girls finally understand they need to do the necessary things in the summer for success -  building a stronger base with longer miles, cross training, and many went to the NEO running camp, held by Maplewood coach Ted Rupe, whose team has qualified for the state meet 18 season in a row.

“(After going) they were more motivated then I've ever seen them,” she said. “I think they just liked being challenged from other coaches. They learned so many different things about training, race strategies, nutrition.”

Hearing speakers like local runner Ann Alyanak, who coaches at Dayton and qualified for the Olympic trials, were big influences. Ritchie said actually seeing people like Alaynak more than reading about them in a magazine made a bigger impact.

Finishing in the middle of the pack at GlenOak was Lake’s women, placing eighth (182). The Blue Streaks top girl was Jenna Williams, who finished 24th. Right behind her was freshman McKenna Strole (29th) and Alli Cadle (30th).

Coach Chris Wise saw positives in his team’s performance.

“I was pleased,” Wise said. “We kind of showed we are picking it up from last year.”

The Blue Streaks lost to Federal League members Perry (121) and GlenOak (148), but Wise was happy to keep GlenOak close.

Wise said that Perry has a good team, but there are other teams in the Federal League they hope to be beating by the end of year.

“Short term, we just want to focus on ourselves, doing the right workouts” he said. “We have a couple of invitationals coming up, Marlington and Dover. In past years we would go to (bigger meets) like Tiffin, but we are just working on individual and team improvement.”

The goal in the end will always be the Federal League and the District meet, but there is plenty of time before then.

One other positive from the GlenOak meet was freshman Emily Criswell, who ran the junior varsity race. She placed 10th overall, and would have been the varsity’s fifth girl.

“She ran really tough and aggressive,” Wise said.

Criswell has earned a spot on the varsity for future meets, and gives the team a little more depth in the process.

For complete results of both the girls and boys races, go to baumspage.com/cc/index.

Volleyball results

Green and Lake met again on the women’s volleyball court this time, with the Blue Streaks coming out on top on Aug. 23.

Lake won 25-9, 25-13, 25-8. For Green, Logan Pastor led in kills with six. Kelsey Corle had 12 assists, and Leann Ciocca had 24 digs.

Green then took on Cloverleaf on Tuesday, losing 25-13, 25-14 and 25-22. The top server was Kaiti Lawrence with two aces, Lauren Kent had 20 digs, Olivia Tharp had two solo blocks and three assisted blocks, and Logan Pastor had five kills.