Saturday, April 21, 2007
The Spartans' boys and girls won Mahoning County track meet championships.
By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
POLAND -- After four years of looking up at Austintown Fitch and Struthers, Boardman High boys track coach Dave Pavlansky entered Saturday's Mahoning County meet with a very good feeling.
Better yet, he entered with a very good team.
"We've got a lot of guys who enjoy track. They're good athletes and they work hard at being good," Pavlansky said. "What they do is important to them."
Behind a strong performance from sophomore Caleb Matthews, and a typically strong day from their distance guys, the Spartans cruised to their first boys county title since 2002, defeating second-place Poland 165-76 at Poland High Stadium.
"Anytime you win a county championship, you're doing something right," said Pavlansky. "It isn't like this is a county meet in northwest Montana. There's some good people here."
Boardman's girls, meanwhile, won their seventh straight county title, defeating Poland 1181/2-84. The win was as much a testament to the Spartans' depth -- there are 68 girls on the team with 27 making the trip Saturday -- as strong individual performances from girls like Breanne Romeo and Lauren Agnew.
"This is a total program win for us," said Boardman coach Denise Gorski. "We've got great athletes, I've got a great coaching staff and great parental support.
"You put that all together and that makes this a pretty easy group to coach."
Romeo wins trophy
Romeo, who won the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes, won the Rob Ruane trophy in Division I, given to the top individual athlete in each division.
"It's a well-deserved honor for a senior who is gaining confidence every time she steps out on the track," Gorski said of Romeo, who broke the county record in the 400 with a time of 57.57 seconds on her fourth race of the day. "That's a tough triple and to win all three in a big meet and to get a meet record in her fourth race shows the kind of talent she has."
Romeo wasn't expecting to win all three -- her best race is the 400 -- and in some ways the experience meant more than the result.
"Everyone in the county has such great sportsmanship," she said. "That's the best part of this meet."
The wins were nice. The weather was nicer.
"It's such a plus when the weather's like this," said Romeo, who spent Saturday battling sunburn, not freezerburn, for a change. "It's a downer when you're getting ready to run in the rain and the snow and the cold.
"I'm really happy it turned out this way."
Matthews cops trophy
Matthews, who also won a Ruane trophy, won the long jump, placed second in the high jump and finished third in the 110 hurdles. To him, the team victory meant more than the individual award.
"We've been waiting a long time for this," he said. "Today was real fun and we did what we had to do. It gives us a lot of confidence."
Team-wise, Boardman's best event is the 800 -- Pavlansky has five guys who run the race in 2:02 or less -- and the Spartans proved it by breaking a 27-year-old county record in the 4x800 relay. Seniors Jake and Rick Lape and juniors Matt Moore and Mike Lesko ran a time of 7:59.12, shattering the old mark of 8:10.90 set by Poland in 1985.
"Those guys give us a lot of depth and allow us to do a lot of different things," Pavlansky said. "When we hit a meet like this, we don't have a weak event."
In Div. II, Struthers' girls and Mooney's boys won team titles, and Mooney's Nick Pederzolli and Struthers' Ashley Galbraith won Ruane trophies.
In Div. III, Springfield's girls and South Range's boys won team titles, with South Range's David Maxwell and Lowellville's Rachel Mariotti winning Ruane trophies.
scalzo@vindy.com