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Smith leads United to county title
Zane Smith won three events as the Eagles claimed the Columbiana County meet.
EAST PALESTINE — United High’s Zane Smith has been begging his coach all season to run the 100 meters in a track meet.
His coach, Troy Brunner, finally relented and allowed Smith to run the event last Friday at the Tusky Valley Invitational. The sophomore took advantage of the opportunity by winning the 100.
With the Columbiana County championship on the line Tuesday at Reid Stadium in East Palestine, Smith again won his coach over and ran in the 100 instead of the 4x400 relay. It turned out to be one of the best decisions Brunner made.
Smith won three individual events — the 100, 200 and 400 — and competed on his team’s winning 4x200 relay to spark the United boys to their first county championship since 1992. The title is the boys’ ninth overall.
“It feels great,” Smith said. “We started talking about this at the start of the season. Everything we’ve done this season was getting us ready for this. We focused on each meet as they came, but they just prepared us to get to this point.”
United took a bit of the drama out of what was expected to be a closely contested race against powerhouse Salem. The Quakers had won four straight team championships. The Golden Eagles had the title wrapped up with two events left.
United (134) finished 30 points ahead of the Quakers (104), with East Palestine (102) finishing third.
Smith was named running event MVP for his huge contribution, scoring 321‚Ñ2 points. But he had plenty of help.
Jordan Johnson won the 300 hurdles and placed second in both the 110 hurdles and the 200, where he was second to Smith. All four United relays finished in the top three, including titles in the 4x200 and 4x800.
“It’s been a long time since United’s won this meet,” Brunner said. “We’ve been second a few years in a row, but this group knew they’d have a shot this year.
“We switched some things around and our relays sacrificed in order for some of our best kids to run individual events,” Brunner said.
“We knew Salem would be right there, but our kids’ hard work paid off and let us finish on top. We knew it would come down to who would be able to double place kids in the most events.”
United was able to place two athletes in seven individual events, including going 1-2 in the 200 and 800 (B.J. Martin and Richard Barker).
In addition to Smith’s multiple victories, several other boys claimed county titles in more than one event. The list is highlighted by Crestview’s Jakob Leon, who was named MVP of the field events with victories in the high jump and long jump. The junior broke the county record in the high jump with a leap of 6-9, which is 5 inches higher than he cleared at the 2007 state meet.
Wellsville senior Nate Carman swept the shot put and discus titles, while East Palestine’s David Chick won the 1600 and 3200.
Girls meet
The Salem girls continued their mastery at the county meet, winning its third straight title with 156 points. Second-place United (124.5) held off East Palestine (116) for runner-up honors.
Salem coach Aime Cochran was pleased with her team’s performance on and off the track and felt that depth was the key to winning another championship.
“Our goal was to double place in nearly every event,” Cochran said. “That has been the key for us winning this meet.
“Another of our goals was for all our girls to support each other and cheer each other one from behind the fence. I’m proud of how they were doing that today,” Cochran said.
“We definitely had our No. 1 guns in there today. Everyone stepped up today and I like how they were gutsy when it came to crunch time. Even the ones that didn’t run stepped up to support their teammates.”
Sarah Brobeck was named MVP of the girls field events after sweeping the shot put and discus.
Liz Shivers won the 3200 and was a member of the victorious 4x800 squad. Lauren Shivers took the gold in the 1600, finished second in the 800 and also ran on the distance relay.
Second-place United was paced by freshman Emily Bokanovich, who won girls running event MVP honors. She won the 100 and 200 and was third in the 400.
Sierra Parks, also a freshman, took top honors in the 300 hurdles, was second in the high jump and was a member of the Eagles’ 4x400 team that placed second.
XResults from this event will be published in Thursday’s Vindicator.