East’s Allen continues stellar spring

By Doug Chapin

Boardman’s Corey Linsley was named the field events MVP.

POLAND — East High sprinter James Allen continued his record-setting season, winning the boys running MVP award Saturday at the 13th Poland Invitational track field meet.

Boardman’s Corey Linsley won the boys field events MVP award, helping the Spartans to the best team finish among local teams, third place.

Reynoldsburg won the boys meet with Twinsburg in second, and Twinsburg won the girls competition, ahead of Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy.

Allen set the meet record of 10.80 seconds in winning the 100-meter dash and also won the 200 with a time of 22.61 after running a 22.43 in qualifying. He also ran a leg on East’s victorious 4x100 relay.

“I feel I make progress every track meet,” Allen, a senior, said. “I broke a record today in the 100. I broke a record last week in the 200. And I broke another record the week before that in the 200.”

Allen, who finished third at the Division II state meet in 2007 while running for Liberty High, said he preferred the longer sprint.

“I can open my stride more, I’m more powerful and I’ve got a longer way to go,” he said about the 200. Allen just missed qualifying last year for the state meet in the 100, finishing fifth in the regional at Ravenna.

He helped the Liberty 4x100 relay finish second in the state. Also on that team was Fitzgerald Toussaint, who was expected to challenge Allen Saturday, but did not run because he is nursing an injury.

“I miss running with ‘Fitz’ a lot,” Allen said about his former teammate. “He pushed me all the time to get me where I’m at right now. I pushed him and he pushed me.”

Boardman finished third in the boys meet despite resting Caleb Matthews who won three events and finished second in a fourth at last weekend’s Mahoning County meet.

The Spartans got first-place finishes from Linsley in the shot put and Brent Bionci in the long jump. Linsley also finished second in the discus and Matt Moore was second in the 800. The Boardman 4x400 relay of Mike Lesko, Elliot Thomas, Bionci and Moore also finished second and Lesko was third in the 400.

“We’ve got a lot of young people running today and a lot of our relays are changed up,” Boardman coach Dave Pavlansky said. “I’m really pleased with Corey Linsley in the shot put, he got out past 58 feet.

“And Alex Lipinski [fourth place] hit three throws in a row that were 50-feet plus. That’s a barrier we’ve been trying to break with him.”

Pavlansky also was pleasantly surprised by Bionci’s performance.

“To have a guy who is your legit number two long jumper win a big invitational like this is really nice,” he said. “Brent is a kid who does a lot for us. He’s going to be in the 4x400 later, he’s a stud 200 meter guy though we’re not using him that way today.

“We’re a little bit ahead in most areas of where we were last year at this time. We are positioned well in the Federal League right now, which is very important to us,” Pavlansky said. “We run GlenOak on Tuesday, they’re undefeated and we’re undefeated. That matchup will have a lot to say about who eventually will be the Federal League champion.”

Other standout local performances on Saturday included Chaney freshman Shatasia Walker who won the 100-meter hurdles and finished second in the 300 hurdles, Salem’s Sarah Brobeck who set a meet record of 137-10 in the discus and was third in the shot put, and Canfield’s Dustin Brode who won the discus and was third in the shot put.

Other local event winners on the girls side were Audrey Maheu of Warren JFK in the 800 and Jordan Moxley of Maplewood in the high jump.

Local boys winners included Poland’s Robert Balzano in the 400 and Bill Dugan in the shot put, and the East 4x100 relay of Brandon King, Allen, Jeffery Purdie and Mike Starkey.

Also, Warren Harding’s Shanae’ Butler finished second in the 200 and third in the 100.