Bowling Green junior Quinn Rader (third from left) is sandwiched between Perrysburg freshman Lane Gazarek (far left), Perrysburg junior Ethan Williamson, and Perrysburg sophomore Zachary Dellisanti (to Rader’s right) in the Northern Lakes League varsity race. (Albert Onderko | Sentinel-Tribune)
FREMONT — For the second straight year, the Bowling Green boys and girls teams swept the Northern Lakes League Cardinal Division cross country championships.
In 14 years as head coach, Pat Carney, with his wife Lisa Carney as his assistant the entire time, have now won six NLL championships, but that includes four the last two years in sweeping the Cardinal Division.
The boys team also won NLL titles in 2014 and 2020. Pat, who has been involved with BG cross country 26 years, was the coach of the BG Middle School program two years and spent 10 years as an assistant at the high school under Brian Tucker.
Saturday at Walsh Park in Fremont, the BG boys team got an individual champion in senior Erek Kendrick, who finished in 15:40.
Behind Kendrick, BG took four of first five places among Cardinal Division runners. BG won the title scoring 22 points, followed by Sylvania Southview (41), Clay (88), Springfield (102), Fremont Ross (128) and Napoleon (161).
“Erek Kendrick is reaping the benefits of four years of hard work,” Pat Carney said. “He has been fortunate to have talented, hard-working teammates over the years and he has learned so much from them.
“His current teammates push him on a daily basis. Despite all those things, Erek simply works very, very hard and gets all of the credit.
“He is dedicated in every aspect of this sport and has big goals for the postseason. He deserves every bit of accolades that are coming his way as Cardinal Division champion.”
Behind Kendrick, his teammates and recent predecessors, the Bobcats have been a strong program in the NLL for years, but Carney says they are now reaching their potential.
“Our boys team has been highly competitive in the NLL for the past ten years. This year we started the season very strong and that placed a bit of a target on our backs.”
Three other All-NLL first team runners, BG junior Landon Fry (second in 15:59), sophomore Sam Wiles (third in 16:16), and senior Sam Challu (fifth in 16:21) “did a tremendous job staying patient in the race and attacking the race at strategic spots,” Carney said.
“They never let the pace of the race phase them and they ran like they knew exactly what was going to happen.”
Carney said three second team All-NLL runners, senior Liam Triggs (11th, 16:56), junior Shawn Carney (12th, 17:05) and junior Quinn Rader (13th, 17:13) “all had orange jerseys (Southview) in their sights throughout the race and did a fantastic job taking care of business.”
Carney says his team had to train harder as the season wore on because it appeared as if other NLL teams were improving.
“As we worked through the toughest weeks of the season in terms of training, it seemed as though Southview and Anthony Wayne were gaining ground on us,” Carney said. “Then, three weeks ago at the Liberty Center Extravaganza, Southview got us by six points.
“The boys did not falter in their belief in themselves. They came into this meet today more confident than we have seen them the whole year.
“Not only did they beat Southview, but we gave Perrysburg and Anthony Waye one heck of a battle (Buckeye and Cardinal division races at the same time and results are then split after the race).
“Those are teams, along with Southview and others, we will see in our race next Saturday at the Division I district meet. Like the girls, this race will provide a huge shot of confidence heading into the postseason.”
BG freshman Adam Proulx won the boys Cardinal Division Open race in 17:28 and sophomore Levi Bateson ran a season best of 17:57 for second place as they led BG to a championship in the Open race as well.
Carney says Proulx and Bateson will continue with the team into the postseason.
