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Rozeski, Hall sweep top two spots

Salem’s Carly Hall (left) and Haley Rozeski (right) lead a pack of runners at the Columbiana County Cross Country Championship Tuesday at Waterworth Memorial Park. (Salem News/Ron Firth)

SALEM — Salem senior Haley Rozeski has an individual county championship to go along with the county team titles she helped the Quakers rack up.

Rozeski was the overall winner at the Columbiana Country Cross Country Meet Tuesday in leading the Salem girls to a fifth straight county title.

“It was nice,” she said. “My first individual county cross country meet win at my home course, my senior season and with my favorite team.”

Rozeski ran away with the county title, covering the 3.1-mile course at muddy Waterworth Memorial Park in 20 minutes, 48.5 seconds. She finished 41 seconds ahead of sophomore teammate Carly Hall.

“I really think my own team was my competition,” said Rozeski, the first Salem girl in eight years to win the county title. “The younger girls are kicking butt. I’m glad I got to share this with them.”

“Haley has been close before and convincingly won,” Salem coach Rob Motz said. “I was almost crying when she came out of the woods. We’ve been expecting this the last couple of years.

“It’s her senior year. Hopefully, I get to see her race five more times.”

She was the runner-up last year and the door opened when three-time country champion Alexis Cunningham of East Palestine graduated.

“I was with Alexis Cunningham. She is one of the best runners in county history,” Rozeski said.

Salem had five of the top 10 runners to win going away with 25 points. East Palestine was second for the second straight year with 66.

Following Rozeski and Hall for the Quakers were freshman Clara Double in fifth, sophomore Halle Cochran in eighth and freshman Alanee Davidson-Chuck in 10th.

“I knew it was not an easy win for the team, but we would have to do what we normally do,” Rozeski said. “Our coaches say it’s not a given. I’m glad we didn’t go out and do the minimum.”

Double and Davidson-Chuck, two freshmen, picked up the pace to make up for the loss of Molly Hopple, who sat out the meet because of sore hips.

“It was a big confidence booster for everybody,” Rozeski said.

Even herself after missing the early part of the season with a sprained ankle suffered while running.

“Especially having a little bit of of injury I’ve dealt with for two weeks,” Rozeski said. “It was pretty bad, but we took precautionary measures. We didn’t want it to linger this season.”

What will be lingering is the success of the Salem program. Rozeski is proud to have helped the Salem girls to county titles all four years of her career.

“I’m glad I could start a new tradition with the younger girls,” she said. “Next year they can win it for me.”

Meet notes

¯ Prayers go out to Southern Local junior Ivy Winters, who is out for the season after being in a motorcycle accident.

Ivy was riding with her father on Sunday on the way to a family picnic at Beaver Creek when they swerved to miss a deer.

She had surgery on a broken left arm and is mending at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Her father is in worse condition, but is expected to recover.

Southern’s runners wore headbands with Ivy on them to let her know they are thinking about her.

¯ Salem’s last individual girls county champion was Mallory Maher in 2010.

¯ The Quakers didn’t want to give East Palestine a chance to make it close.

“East Palestine has been really, really good,” Motz said. “They do a good job over there. Too bad Alexis (Cunningham) wasn’t two years younger.”

¯Waterworth Memorial Park lived up to its name Tuesday. The course was sloppy and, fortunately, it only rained during the junior high boys race.

“It was muddy and hard to get going,” Rozeski said. “The fastest part was the woods. That is usually the slowest part.”

“Usually the kids are good at coaching themselves,” Motz said. “They know where the bad parts of the course are more than I would.”

¯ Salem is off until Oct. 6 when the Quakers will compete at the Legends meet at the Trumbull County Fairgrounds, also the site of the district meet.

The Quakers will finish off the regular season at the Eastern Buckeye Conference Meet at Copeland Oaks on Oct. 13. The new league is still tough, even with Louisville out of the mix.

“On the boys side, Minerva is good and can beat us,” Motz said. “But we expect us to win. The Minerva girls are incredible. Their junior high girls are good, too. They’ve got something brewing over there.”

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