Deskin bolts for Spartans

Suburban Cross Country Meet

Video

By Joe Scalzo

CANFIELD — For much of Tuesday’s Suburban League championships, spectators needed one set of binoculars to spot the Ray Ban-wearing, hair-flopping figure in the Boardman uniform, then another to spot his competition.

Spartans junior Sam Deskin let the pack have a little hope for the first mile, then stole it away on a downhill stretch a mile into the race when he “punched it a little bit” and ran away for a 20-second victory at the Canfield Fairgrounds.

“Honestly, I didn’t know who was behind me,” he said.

His coach wasn’t much help. The course layout looped across the outskirts of the fairgrounds, leaving coaches feeling helpless and, well, a little liberated.

As Boardman coach Dave Pavlansky put it, “We coaches have no responsibilities. Can’t see, can’t coach.”

The Spartans entered Tuesday’s race having won four straight league titles and Pavlansky knew his main competition for No. 5 would come from McDonald, last year’s state runner-up in Division III. The Blue Devils couldn’t match Boardman’s best three runners; the question was, could the Spartans match McDonald’s pack?

“We just wanted to run our best against them,” Deskin said. “Hopefully, it worked out.”

It did. Boardman’s top three finished in the top 11 and the Spartans edged McDonald 56-72. The Spartans girls also won, slipping past Poland, 102-104

The boys’ (somewhat) comfortable margin surprised Pavlansky, who still views McDonald (coached by Chris Rupe) and Maplewood (Ted Rupe) as the area standard.

“The Rupe brothers are outstanding,” Pavlansky said. “They’ve created a culture of running at Maplewood and McDonald.”

Has Pavlansky done the same?

“Not to that extent,” he said. “We are still working on a tradition. They have a culture. They’re drinking the Kool-Aid out there.”

Deskin, who finished second to teammate Matt Moore at last year’s race, lowered his time from last fall by 15 seconds. This is the first time the junior has been healthy for a full season — he had tendinitis in his heel two years ago and injured his hip flexor last year — and it shows.

“Doggone it, you’re going to curse us,” Pavlansky said. “This is the first year he’s made it through without some kind of stupid thing happening. Hopefully we’ll make it the rest of the way.”

Lowellville junior Monica Ciarniello was even more dominating than Deskin, cruising to first by more than a minute over Jackson-Milton’s Samantha Hamilton.

“I don’t like to lose,” she said. “I still always think somebody’s behind me, so I just go like someone’s right next to me.”

Ciarniello’s coach, Jerry Tarcy, told her to get in front of the pack and stay there.

Not a bad strategy, eh?

“Hey, it’s not rocket science,” he said, laughing.

Ciarniello finished second each of the last two years and has taken her running to another level this fall. Tarcy admits he stays awake at night worrying she might peak too soon or get hurt. He knows talent like hers doesn’t come around often.

“I told her to run easy, run comfortable, run relaxed and run fast,” he said. “And she did. Obviously.”

Boardman sophomore Katie Heney placed fourth for the Spartans, who took their second straight team title.

“We were a little bit nervous; we knew it would be close,” Boardman coach Julie Sturgiss said. “I was counting every girl that was coming in. There was a lot of light blue.”

But not enough.

“The girls did a nice job of fulfilling the goals we set for them,” Sturgiss said. “It’s a great day for Boardman.

“We’re going home happy.”

scalzo@vindy.com