‘It’s a mental race’: Caputo, Fredericktown earn silver at Denny Stevens Invitational

FREDERICKTOWN – Thomas Caputo is willing to share.

Coming into Tuesday’s Denny Stevens Invitational, the Fredericktown junior had won three of his first five races this season. He’d also edged one of Richland County’s fastest runners, Mansfield Christian senior Clay Reynolds, twice – by two seconds at Ashland, which made the difference between fourth and fifth place; then 10 seconds at Galion, which separated first from second.

But on Tuesday, things just didn’t break right for Fredericktown’s lead runner. He finished second, four ticks behind Reynolds, whom he ran side-by-side with the whole race.

Standing in the chute moments later, Caputo didn’t seem to mind. Second place every once in a while is acceptable, right?

“It’s hard to say I’m disappointed in being second because there’s a lot of kids in this race, a lot of great runners, so you can’t ever be disappointed when you get a top-three finish,” Caputo said. “And I was happy with my time – I mean, it wasn’t a PR by any means, but it was really good for how I felt.”

Caputo finished with a time of 16:34, his third-fastest time this season, leading Fredericktown to a second-place finish on its home course. Mount Gilead, which boasted three of the race’s top five finishers (Liam Dennis, Ethan Supplee and Brett Shipman), won with a team total of 38 points, well ahead of the Freddies’ 94.

Caputo said afterwards that he was happy for Reynolds, who won his first race of the season on Tuesday. While the two don’t know each other well off the course, Caputo said they’ve formed a sort of bond over the first two months of the season. They talk during the races, Reynolds said, which helps distract from the agony of running 3.1 miles in the afternoon heat. They push each other to run faster, reveling in the opportunity to race against a competitor just as driven as themselves.

Hey, it’s lonely at the top. Who wouldn’t want a friend like that?

“I’m proud of Clay,” Caputo said. “He ran a really good race and got the win… He’s just a great worker, he’s got the right mindset, and he’s really talented. He’s going to do some good things.”

“I’ve raced against him before, he’s a great runner,” Reynolds said of Caputo. “We talked while we were out there, it’s a good time. He’s a nice guy. It was fun.”

In their third race together this season, Reynolds was able to pull away from Caputo on Tuesday within the last half mile. After making it up the final hill, a quarter-mile slog that made Reynolds question why he runs cross country, the Mansfield Christian senior still had some juice left in him. The Flames hadn’t raced in 10 days (they had last Saturday off, unlike Fredericktown), and Reynolds’ legs still felt somewhat springy.

He broke off from Caputo on the home stretch, bursting to the finish line with long strides. Reynolds finished with a time of 16:30 – not a PR, but good enough.

“It feels good,” Reynolds said afterwards. “Whenever you can get a win, no matter what the time, it always feels good.”

Despite finishing second, Caputo said he felt good about his time on Tuesday, given the fact that he was wearing trainers, not spikes (which often allow for a quicker race). Caputo’s spikes dig into his Achilles tendon, he said, so he saves them for Saturday races.

The junior was also proud of his team’s performance. Sophomore Evan France, the team’s second runner, hung near Caputo and Reynolds for most of the race and finished with a time of 17:06, good for eighth place. Junior Titus Krabill placed 18th at 17:36, senior Roghan Roddy placed 31st at 18:16, and senior Ethan Dudgeon placed 35th at 18:22.

“It was a really good race I’d say. I’m happy with how it went,” Caputo said. “I’m proud of Evan, he ran really good. I’m proud of all my teammates.”

Times were typically a few seconds slow on Tuesday due to the heat and the nature of Fredericktown’s home course; runners were asked to conquer two daunting hills at the Kokosing Dam, including the monster on Mile 3.

“We run here every day, so I should have a leg up on it, but it still sucks every time,” Caputo said of the final hill. “That hill over there, it gets you. You’re tired when you hit it, and by the time you get to the top, you can’t even imagine being that tired. [Getting to] the top of the hill, it’s more mental.”

Still, Caputo said his team loves racing at home. The Kokosing Dam was packed with friends and family on Tuesday night, as seemingly the entire town came out to watch the meet. The Fredericktown marching band played before the race – something not often seen at cross country meets – and 23 schools from across central Ohio competed.

“I’m pretty sure most of the community’s here. This is their favorite cross country meet because they don’t have to run the hill, but they get to watch us run the hill and struggle up it. They really enjoy it, I think,” Caputo cracked. “It means a lot to do good here because this is the one they all come to, so we’ve gotta give it our all.”

The Freddies will have two weeks to prepare for the KMAC meet, where they’ll look to defend their title. Caputo has emerged as an early favorite to win the race individually, but Mount Gilead will likely be favored to win the team race, given its front-five depth.

Races like the Denny Stevens Invitational – as challenging as it is – will help in that preparation, Caputo said.

“It’s big. This is a good race to really feel how your teammates – their tendencies and how they race. And especially for the mental part of it, this is the perfect course to strengthen your mental game because down there it’s pretty flat, but most of the rest of it, it’s pretty hilly,” he said. “Once you get to the top of the dam, you’ve got that wind blowing against you, it doesn’t make it very easy. Like I said before, it’s a mental race.”

Mount Gilead wins girls race; Fredericktown, Centerburg follow

Mount Gilead junior Allison Johnson won the girls race on Tuesday with a time of 19:06, nine seconds ahead of teammate Baylee Hack, who placed second.

Johnson said afterwards that she and Hack looked to set a tempo in the beginning of the race, then let loose near the end.

“We decided to take it out a little bit easier and do more of a set-pace kind of tempo in the beginning, and then we got to go and take off at the end and do what we wanted to,” Johnson said. “It was fun to kind of push through the end and kind of work on mental toughness a little bit.”

Johnson and Hack finished first and second, respectively, at last year’s KMAC meet. Mount Gilead placed third, however, behind Centerburg and Fredericktown.

If Tuesday’s meet serves as any sort of indicator, the Indians are primed for more team success this year. Mount Gilead won the race handily, scoring 43 points to Fredericktown and Centerburg’s 64. The Indians’ top five runners all finished in the top 30 overall, with their three fastest runners finishing in the top six.

Johnson said her team hadn’t thought of Tuesday’s race as any sort of KMAC litmus test, however. They’re taking things one race at a time, she said.

“We’re more so focusing on us right now and seeing what we can do, and how to get better later on in the season, so we can push the other teams and see if we can get first,” Johnson said.

While Fredericktown and Centerburg both finished with 64 team points on Tuesday, Fredericktown won the tiebreaker because its sixth runner placed higher (only the top five typically score).

Centerburg, however, had the highest individual finisher from either team: Avery Tucker.

The sophomore finished with a time of 19:57, setting a personal record and placing fourth overall.

“I’m really happy about that,” Tucker said. “But I kind of felt slow, which is weird to say, but up that hill, I had to really push because I felt like I was going slow almost. So I had to really push, it really hurt, but I know it paid off in the end.”

Tucker wasn’t the only Trojan to race well on Tuesday. Two of her teammates – senior Aeryn Walters and sophomore Makenna Henell – also finished in the top 10 with times under 21 minutes. Fredericktown countered by having its top five runners all finish in spots 10-20.

On a day when most runners struggled to cope with Fredericktown’s brutal course, Centerburg thrived. Tucker believes it was due to the team’s preseason training, which included hill workouts every Wednesday for five straight weeks.

“We were preparing for hills like that one,” Tucker said, glancing toward the devastating Mile 3 incline.

While Tucker said Tuesday could serve as a KMAC primer, given how all five teams participated, she noted that much can change between now and October 12.

“We have a lot of our conference here, so we can look at how we did here and see how we can do in the future. But anything could change at this point,” Tucker said. “We just know that we have to stay strong for our conference races that are coming up.”

For a full list of results from Tuesday’s race, click here.