For the second year in a row, the boys cross country team qualified for regionals this fall, placing 6th overall at the district level. 

Prior to last year, the boys team had not qualified for regionals since 2003.

“It is an honor to be part of the first two teams that made it to regionals in such a long period of time,” junior Max Kuenzler said. 

The team placed 17th overall at regionals on Oct. 29th at Boardman High School.

“I’m pretty sure that our division is the most competitive division in the state,” added Kuenzler. “We [face] the defending state champion [in] our region.” 

Beachwood falls under division two, where last year’s state champion from Marlington also competed. 

At invitationals throughout the season the boys team often finished in the top three overall. 

“We’re definitely a very good solid team and that’s become very well known,” Coach Jamie Lader said. 

Beachwood is one of the smaller schools in the division, making it harder to score enough points to place, but the boys team has still managed to place in the top three at every invitational. 

The boys team consisted of seven runners, including Captain Vincent Crenshaw, senior David Steckner, juniors Max Kuenzler and Probir Mukherjee, sophomores Alex Eisengart and Henrik Burda and freshman Junbo Wang.  When meets allowed, the team was able to move up additional runners from JV.

It has been challenging for the girls’ team to compete this year, given that they have only had four runners: freshman Sasha Kheyfets, juniors Sara Kumar and Sara Ahn and senior Rebecca Lawton. 

Lader feels that Kheyfets, who placed 8th at the Cardinal meet, is going to be a very talented runner. 

“Newcomer Sasha Kheyfets was really impressive this season,” he said.

One of the problems that comes with smaller teams is finding replacements when a team member is unavailable to attend a meet. Moreover, many of the runners have struggled with injuries.

“When one or two people on the team can’t be there for some reason, especially when they’re one of the top five on varsity, we don’t have anyone who can replace them or come close most of the time…[especially] having a team as small as we do,” Kuenzler said.

Nevertheless, the boys team still placed 4th at CVCs.

“In CVC, we are in the Chagrin division which has all the larger schools versus the Valley division which has schools that are similar in size to us,” said junior Sara Kumar. “Despite that, the boys varsity team places really well, especially given our size.”

Lader enjoys working individually with each runner. He is proud that each runner saw improvement from meet to meet. 

“It’s a great combination of individuals [who] all support each other and are really focused to do really well for the season,” he said. “That’s been true of the past couple years, but in particular, this team is very special and [close knit].”

Similarly, senior Vincent Crenshaw, who is captain of the team, spoke proudly of the team’s accomplishments. He pointed out the team’s strong bond and their collaborative dedication to the sport.

“I think the fact that we kind of ‘pack up’ as runners and run as a group is our strength [alongside] our hard work and enjoyment of putting in effort,” he said. “Even on days we don’t have practice, you can find me or other members of the team running on the track or elsewhere in Beachwood.”

As a newcomer on the team, Kumar describes the team as very supportive, understanding and motivated. She recounted that sometimes, the runners would stay to support the middle school team. 

“I can’t think of a single time that anyone was upset at another person or where anything has escalated into a full problem,” she said. “At each meet, we always have people [show up] even if they’re running or not and everyone’s just supportive of all the team.”