A matter of inches can decide a title. That was the case Oct. 19 at the Division I Madison District. St. Ignatius and Mentor had a battle for the team title as the Wildcats’ Maxwell Friedrich took home the top spot in 15:28.29. Mentor’s Billy Dennison followed in a battle to the line with Sam Hopp of Twinsburg. The edge went to the Tigers’ senior by a thousandth of a second (15:40.83 to 15:40.84) and St. Ignatius took home the team title over Mentor 66-68. Dennison and Matthew Penkowski, who took fourth said the Cardinals’ future is bright. Underclassmen like Michael Maynard and Shawn Castiglone played major roles in the runner-up finish. “It’s great, times are totally out the door for postseason,” Dennison said. “It’s great practice for next week and state of just picking your spot and fighting to the end for place.” Penkowski added: “It’s nice having such a young team. One week someone has a bad race, the next they show up strong. It’s good to see them all progress and catch up to us.” Chardon (third) and University (fifth) advanced as teams. Mayfield’s Tim Zagar (24th) and South’s Ethan Scott (31st) also advanced to regionals. The Division II race was paced by Orange’s Brian Gent in 15:53. Chagrin Falls’ Tommy Mooney was in his shadow for second with a 16:09. Along with Kelan Byrne in third and Zach Huey in ninth, the Tigers took home the team title over Lakeview. Mooney knows a lot of the attention goes to the top three but the back half of the lineup played a huge part in bringing home the team title. “Brian got out quick and had a lead,” Mooney said. “I had to dial in for me and focus on my race strategy. Those guys are a big part of our team. If we want to have state advancement, they have to step up and perform. We know they can and are confident they can step up big next week again.” NDCL finished fourth as a team with Kenston (fifth) and Hawken (seventh) also earning advancement spots. The Lions were led by Owen Thomas in fourth with Madison’s Owen Bottar (sixth), West Geauga’s Jacob Williams (seventh) and Kenston’s Matthew Collins (eighth) all in the top 10. Geneva also had a pair of qualifiers in Donald Shymske in 20th and Jovan Sanchez in 25th. In the Division III race, Cardinal’s Sam Gdovichin led area qualifiers with an 11th-place finish in 17:22.94. The Huskies’ runners behind him had the team’s hopes on their backs. With Tor Eastlake 28th, Gage Wagamn 31st and Oliver Kumher 34th, they advanced to the regional meet. Gdovichin said this meet was more about worrying about placement than time. He is excited for the chance at redemption at Boardman. “The layout was different with the path straight into the woods,” Gdovichin said. “It was actually kinda nice. Last year the stretch was longer and any runner would say an 800 stretch is difficult. It wasn’t as good of a run as last year but it was good for us.” Maplewood took home the team title followed by Mineral Ridge and McDonald. The Blue Devils had Carson Klase win the individual title with a 16:04. Kirtland’s Joey Ciavarelli broke through with a personal record, his second in as many weeks, and was right on the heels of Gdovichin. His 17:23.53 advanced him to regionals for the first time in his career.