After winning the boys race of the Wellsville-Middletown Invitational on Sept. 20, Layne Norris got to hug his biggest fan – his mother, Krista.

“She’s been my hero for 17 years,” the Wellsville-Middletown senior said.

Norris dedicated his first victory of his high school cross country career to his mother, who recently came out of the hospital after battling coronavirus and pneumonia.

“She was in the hospital for a week,” Norris said. “I didn’t know if she wasn’t going to make it out. She was in rough shape. She told me, ‘I’m hanging on because I want to see you win a cross country meet.’ She did today.”

Norris placed first with a season-best time of 18 minutes, 38 seconds, nine seconds shy from his personal-best 18:29 he ran at the Class 1 state meet last fall.

“He was highly motivated today,” W-M coach John Slovensky said. “It was super hot today, but he didn’t let any of that bother him. He had a focus. His time wasn’t far off from his career best that he ran at state last year. He was expecting to get a really good time pretty soon. He lost to the kid from Clopton in the other two races this season. He knew who he had to go after if he wanted to win today.”

Norris also helped the W-M boys win the team championship. The Tigers placed first with 27 points, followed by Clopton with 50 and Marion County with 51.

Five other W-M runners also earned medals in the boys race. Senior Keaton Mayes placed fifth with a 20:16, senior Isaac Seabaugh came in sixth with a 20:31, freshman Hunter Bickell finished seventh with a 20:48, junior Kaleb Peak was ninth with a 21:01 and freshman Jonah Slovensky placed 10th with a 21:13.

Sophomore Jenelle Boeckelman was the lone W-M medalist in the girls race, placing third with a 26:08.

Besides Norris, Mayes, Seabaugh and seniors Jason Hollensteiner and Lucas Peak competed in the W-M Invitational for the final time. All of the runners have competed with the W-M program since they were freshmen.

“Those guys have been my biggest supporters and my friends for 4 or 5 years,” Norris said. “I couldn’t have done as much as I do without their motivation and them chasing me down. I was nowhere near them. When I was a freshman, I wanted to be like them and I wanted to run up with them. Now, I got my shot to pace them. It’s just great. It’s coming full circle now.”

Norris was thrilled to get his first high school cross country win in his senior year.

“It was long overdue,” Norris said. “I thought it was going to come three weeks ago at Van-Far (on Sept. 7), but things went south. Today, things were good.”

Norris was in second place behind Clopton’s Joshua Harvey before taking the lead after the second mile. He won the race by 19 seconds.
“When I came around the second time, I knew he was not too far ahead,” Norris said. “I just had to be consistent and hold on to him. I saw a little bit of weakness from him. I decided that I was going to pick it up and try to beat him. After that, I ran scared. I just had to hang on.”

The senior said his mother was on his mind in the final mile.

“She just got out of the hospital,” Norris said. “When I went through my head in that last lap, I gotta do it for her.”

Norris became the second W-M runner in three years to win the boys individual title at the W-M Invitational. Seabaugh won it in 2019.

Slovensky said he hopes for bigger and better things for Norris for the rest of the season.

“He’s been motivated for longer than a year,” the W-M coach said. “He has found his inner competitor. He wants to have a great season, and he wants the team to have a great season. He had a part-time job this summer that he worked very physically at. After he got done there, he would run. He’s been seen running around town. He’s been working really hard to get to this moment.”