State championship caps off Rapp’s career
Camden Paeltz | Editor-in-Chief
Mason senior runner Will Buckalew holds the Ohio High School Athletic Association state
championship trophy above his head. Also pictured from left to right: Paras Yadav, Luke
Berkebile, Caden Winship, Will Buckalew, Jerry Xu, Max Grecco, Eligh Amshoff.
On November 2, the Mason High School Boys Cross Country team reclaimed the top step on the state championship podium. It was the Comets’ third state title in the last four years. The Comets finished ahead of local rival St. Xavier.
Junior Caden Winship led Mason, scoring sixth overall and finishing in 15:09. Following Winship was Senior Will Buckalew, who finished 34th overall with a time of 15:44. Next came Jason Xu, Max Greco and Luke Berkebile, who all finished in the top 50 in the state. Following Berkebile was Paras Yadav in 65th place. Eligh Amshoff finished in 6th place for Mason and in 77th place overall with a time of 16:08.
“Pack” or “group” running is an often used strategy in cross country where a team will try to have as many runners as possible finish together. Running in a group allows for runners to finish closely, blocking out other teams from the chance of scoring a few points. Winship believes that it was Mason’s group that propelled the team into the first-place position.
“I really think it was our two through five,” Winship said. “All [of the runners] did exactly what they needed to do. When I crossed that line, I turned around and I’m looking for our guys, and all of a sudden I saw four of them cross at the same time.”
Winship has worked his way up the leaderboard of Mason’s fastest runners, ending this season as the second-fastest in Mason Cross Country history. He currently sits just 13 seconds behind record holder Zach Wills. With one more year in his high school career, Winship is hoping to overcome Wills, who set a record of 14:54 in 2009.
The last race of the year also happened to be the last of Head Coach Tom Rapp’s career. Winship and the rest of the team were determined to end Rapp’s career on a high note. During the pre-race huddle, the team collectively decided that they were going to win one more state title for their coach.
“We needed to get [the title] for Rapp,” Winship said. “That’s one of the last words we said to each other while we were in the huddle before we won the state meet.”