Brown, Honsaker dominate district

By Pete Mollica

NEW MIDDLETOWN — Ursuline High sophomore Jasmine Brown and Mineral Ridge senior Nicole Honsaker never competed in the same event Friday at the Division III district track and field meet at Springfield High, but it certainly would have been interesting if they did.

Brown won the 100- and 200-meter dashes and also anchored both the 4x100 and 4x200 meter relay teams to victory, while Honsaker captured the 100 hurdles and the 300 hurdles and also won the long jump and narrowly missed a fourth first when she came within a yard of winning the 4x400 relay with her anchor leg.

Both will be big favorites next week at the District III regional competition in Navarre.

Brown’s two anchor legs helped the Irish set records in both relays, and the records that were broken were the ones they set a year ago.

The team of Tim’Aira Gandy, Liz Emanuel, Michaela Write and Brown turned in a 1:45.79 clocking in the 4x200, bettering the mark they set last year of 1:45.99. In the 4x100, the same four turned in a 50.64 time, which beat last year’s mark of 50.66.

“It’s just hard work, patience and focus,” said Brown, who helped the 4x200 team win the state title a year ago as just a freshman.

The teams haven’t had a lot of competition as they won both races easily, but that doesn’t bother Brown.

“The competition is right with ourselves, trying to just do better every time we run,” she said. She and Write had some good races Friday in the 100 and 200.

Brown beat her pretty easily in the 100 with a 12.8 to Write’s 13.11 for second, but in the 200 it was almost a photo finish as Brown finished in 26.60 and Write 26.63.

“We’ve pushed each other all season long,” added Write. “We try to make each other better.”

Honsaker, who has been to the state meet in the 100, 200 and 400, decided to stay with the hurdles this season.

“I just decided to go with what I feel are my best chances to return to state,” she said.

She won the 100 meter hurdles in 15.66 and the 300 in 45.30, while she set a new meet record in the long jump with a leap of 17 feet, bettering the old mark by nearly a foot.

The only other double winner for the girls on Friday was Jackson-Milton’s talented distance runner Samantha Hamilton. The junior won the 1600 meter run in 5:12.34, setting a new record, while she also took the 3200 run in 11:34.37.

Warren JFK’s Audrey Maheu set a record in the 800 with the time of 2:14.22, bettering the mark she set last year of 2:15.17.

Mineral Ridge won the team title in the girls division with 107 points while McDonald was second with 81, JFK had 72 and Ursuline 71.

The top two running performers in the boys division were both from Pymatuning Valley, as Brandon Barrett copped both the 100 (11.16) and the 200 (22.70), while Landon Hamilton won the 1600 (4:28.03) and the 3200 (10:01.88).

McDonald, which won the boys team championship with 81 points, was sparked by its two relay victories in the 4x200 and the 4x400.

Drew Banyon, Steve Bada and Devon Colburn ran on both teams, while Corey Lunn ran a leg on the 4x200 and Thomas Holland ran on the 4x400.

The only record set in the boys division on Friday came in the high jump where Crestview’s Jakob Leon soared 6 feet, 8 inches to win easily the event and better the old record by 4 inches.

“I started high jumping in eighth grade only because nobody else wanted to, but the more I jumped the better I got so I just kept working at it,” Leon said.

He went to state last year and finished sixth with a jump of 6-4. The junior is looking for bigger and better things this year.

East Palestine finished second to the Blue Devils with 64 points while Pymatuning Valley was third with 62.