Harding boys overcome chills for Poland thrills

Poland's girls team finished fifth at its invitational.
By ERIC HAMILTON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
POLAND -- Instead of sunglasses and water bottles, members of the Warren G. Harding boys track team packed winter coats and stocking caps in their bags for Saturday's meet at Poland High.
The cold, wet weather that dominated the day was far from perfect for a team built on speed and one that hopes for warm weather every time out.
Throw in the fact that top sprinter Chris Rucker was limited to just one race and the Raiders weren't sure what kind of day it was going to be.
"All things considered, we thought we could be in the top half of the teams," Harding coach Charles Penny said. "We have good speed, but losing Chris hurts us. Any team that loses a kid as fast as he is will lose points.
"Sprinters are finicky about the weather; they like the heat. Days like today present mental challenges. They don't like to warm up, but on days like today, you have to work to stay warm. I think that showed a little today."
Raiders are second
Despite the hardships, Harding warmed up just enough to finish second in the team standings at the 12th annual Poland Invitational with 59 points. The Raiders accomplished the feat without registering a single event victory. GlenOak won the title with 70 points.
"Things went about as expected for us," Penny said. "If you have surprises at this point, you start to worry. We use this meet as a training tool to experiment with different relay combinations and try to find the perfect mesh of guys."
While Penny was forced to adjust on the fly with the limited availability of Rucker, he didn't have any decisions to make in the field events. Chris Anzevino was steady in the throwing events, winning the discus and finishing second in the shot put.
Antoine Rucker finished seventh in the 400, D'Avery Crawford took fourth in the 110 hurdles, Brandon Davis grabbed a sixth-place spot in the 100, Brandon Simpson was third in the 200, Stephen Drake took fourth in the high jump and the Raiders 4x100 and 4x200 relay teams finished second.
"I'm a little sore, but I'm going to come back from this," said Chris Rucker, who scratched his two individual events and ran only on the 4x200 relay. "I'm used to being able to get the victory for our team, but I couldn't today.
"I'm just going to try to rest and stretch and recover by state. The other guys run hard, but sometimes harder when I'm not out there. Hopefully that will continue when I get all the way back."
Girls meet
The girls meet was dominated individually by Cleveland Beaumont's Emily Infeld.
The junior state placer won the 800, 1600 and the 3200, while also helping her 4x400 relay team to a third-place finish.
She set meet records in the 1600 and 3200 and just missed toppling her own mark in the 800.
Canton GlenOak won the meet with 88 points, while Twinsburg (73) was second. The top local team was Poland (53), which took fifth.
The Bulldogs were paced by a first-place finish by Shayna Conzett in the 100 hurdles. Lauren Fithian was second in the 800 and freshman Alicia Taylor was fourth in the 200 and fifth in the 100. The Bulldogs' 4x800 relay squad was fifth.
Canfield's Audra Frimpong won the long jump and took fourth in the 100. Struthers junior Ashley Galbraith cleared 5-4 in the high jump to win the event.
Salem's Sarah Brobeck finished third in both the shot put and discus. Teammate Liz Shivers won third in the 3200 and fifth in the 1600.