Spartans capture two loop crowns

Matt Moore of Boardman
and Samantha Hamilton of
Jackson-Milton won races.

By MARK W. MILLER

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

CANFIELD — The Boardman High boys and girls cross country teams, having already won Suburban League regular-season titles, raced to championships Tuesday at the league meet at the Canfield Fairgrounds.

Matt Moore placed first in 16 minutes, 21.2 seconds in the boys run as he helped Boardman to the boys team crown with 29 points. McDonald finished second with 70.

“It’s the fourth straight year we’ve won the Suburban, but we won’t let that get into our heads,” said Moore. “We knew there were a lot of good runners here and we may go up against some of them again.

“I just tried to stay in contention in the race, knew I had a surge, took the lead at about 2800 meters, then sprinted to the finish.”

A senior in his third year of cross country, Moore is also a sprinter on the Spartans track and field team.

Moore’s teammate, Sam Deskin, finished in second place (16:43.7), while Joe Stazak (17:22.8) was ninth and Mike Lesko (17:31.9) was 11th.

Tyler Ames (16:53) of Lakeview placed third in the field of 321 athletes. Landon Hamilton (16:56.6) of Pymatuning Valley was fourth and Robert Zanni (17:00) of Struthers was fifth.

“We try to build on each race,” said Moore. “We know the Federal League run in Boardman in a couple of weeks will be one of our toughest challenges this season.”

Agnew leads Boardman

Junior Lauren Agnew (19:55.2), who was third, led Boardman’s girls team, which finished with 92 points. Maplewood was second with 147 and Cardinal Mooney was third with 168.

Boardman sophomore Katie Heney (20:54.2) was eighth; senior Tricia Haff (21:39.1) was 20th and junior Becca Muntean (22:03.3) was 27th.

“Coming off the big Spartan meet last Saturday we came out here and ran our best,” said Haff. “We were concerned about Mooney, they are a big rival. We beat them at the East Palestine Invitational and we wanted to beat them again.

“We had a good feeling coming here today and hoped we would win,” said Haff. “The four of us went to summer camp and we work out every day, average about 5 miles and now we are hoping to get out of districts.”

Boardman coach Linda Frease, in her fifth season said, “We were fourth [in the league meet] last year, so this was huge for us.

“The girls are right where we want them to be as we head to Canton for a big meet at Malone College Saturday. We have the Federal League meet at Boardman Oct. 13 and I think are girls will be competitive with them. It’s one of the strongest leagues in the state.”

Hamilton is winner

Junior Samantha Hamilton (19:30.4) of Jackson-Milton won the girls race, while Monica Ciarniello (19:53.6) of Lowellville was second. Leighann Kelvington (20:18.1) of East Palestine was fourth and Audrey Maheu (20:31) of Warren JFK was fifth. A field of 248 girls competed in the race.

“I was concerned about Maheu,” said Hamilton. “I was 11th here last year and I went out and did what my coach said to do.

“The first 2 miles was the best I’ve run this season and hen I put out everything I had in the last mile,” she added. “This gives me confidence for regional and I hope I find myself in line at the state meet.”

miller@vindy.com