Salem boys team happy to be back at state
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Salem’s Sam Yakubek competes in the Div. II state championship on Saturday at Fortress Obetz. At left, is Salem’s Jackson Dowd. (Photo by Ron Firth)
Salem’s CJ Siembida runs in the Div. II cross country championship on Saturday at Fortress Obetz. (Photo by Ron Firth)
OBETZ -- The Salem boys cross country team worked harder than ever for its first state berth since 2018.
“I think they learned a lot with the seasons before,” Salem coach Ted Yuhaniak said. “Not giving up and delayed satisfaction. There is going to be a struggle before success.”
The Quakers placed eighth out of 24 Division II boys teams Saturday after finishing eighth at regionals the week before.
“They were wondering what could go wrong and we said what if all clicks,” Yuhaniak said.
It did with four Quakers running career bests and another a season best. The Salem boys scored 258 points for eighth place and their best state finish since the 2005 state championship season.
“We gave everything we had,” junior Alex Rea said.
“I’m so happy because we’re a small school compared to every school in D2,” Salem senior Sam Yakubek said. “It showed we can do this.”
The Quakers didn’t have any frontrunners, but place four from 47th to 91st.
“They knew they could put their five in with any other team,” Yuhaniak said. “That’s why they placed up there.”
Senior Luke Stephens topped the Quakers, placing 47th out of 216 runners. His time of 16 minutes, 14.4 seconds, a second off his season best and Salem’s best in the seven years the state meet has been held at Fortress Obetz.
“I had a different mindset,” Stephens said. “Coming in I wanted to focus on the team.”
Following him were junior Colton Hall in 72nd (16:27.8), Rea in 82nd (a career-best 16:33.5), freshman Taven Tice in 91st (a career-best 16:39.6), senior Jackson Down in 130th (a career-best 17:02.3), Yakubek in 136th (17:05.3) and senior CJ Siembida in 216th (a career-best 18:32.2).
Rea, who watched Stephens and Yakubek at the state meet last year, improved his personal best by 12 seconds.
“Seeing the course and how the race goes helped me out a lot today,” Rea said. “It’s awesome. It’s everything you dream of. The competition is the best I’ve ran against.”
Salem came in ranked 18th in the coaches’ pre-state poll.
“They saw that and that gave them more motivation,” Yuhaniak said.
Yakubek qualified for state as an individual the past two seasons and, after dealing with injuries and sickness, was just glad to be along for the state run this year.
“I ran the fastest I could do with what was on the table for me, but everyone else ran their best,” Yakubek said.
He said he pulled a hamstring during his sophomore track season and suffered from low iron and protein his junior track season. He said it forced him to miss a month of training for cross country.
“I couldn’t be happier with him,” Yuhaniak said. “We had a really tough practice in September and he didn’t give up.
“I’m super proud of him playing the role he played this year. He was the leader and everyone saw he wouldn’t quit, even with the struggles. There’s so many who wouldn’t have given their best effort, but he did.”
He was there for the Quakers on Saturday.
“With the work everyone put in, I had no doubt we would be here,” Yakubek said.
The Quakers hope to do it again next year as they return three of their top runners.
“I hope we’ll be back,” Rea said. “We know how to get here. We know the formula, we just have to execute.”
“We’ll reload next year,” Stephens said. “With the training we did this year, I look for them to be back here and do better than we did this year.”