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Feasting On Success
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Warren Harding's Deaver Williamson competes in the 4 x 200m relay on Saturday afternoon.
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Mooney's Matt McWilson competes in the 4x100m relay on Saturday afternoon.
Sacrifices by Valley athletes paid off with 12 state titles
By JOE SCALZO
Vindicator sports staff
Minutes after Howland senior Nicole Pachol completed her unlikely comeback from hip surgery (which wiped out her 2008 track season) to Division I state 300-meter champion on Saturday, her mind immediately turned to her stomach.
“I’ve been on a big huge diet for the last three months,” she said. “I don’t know what I’m going to eat first.”
For Mahoning Valley athletes like Pachol, the sacrifices made during track season — particularly in March and April, when the weather stinks and the state meet seems eons away — paid off this weekend.
The Valley took home 12 state titles — a huge number, even for an area traditionally strong in track and field — and finished second in nine other events.
It also saw Lakeview’s boys finish runner-up in Division II.
By comparison, the Valley won just one title as recently as the 2006 meet and finished second in two events that year.
Lakeview’s performance was keyed by senior Ben Moody, a Cornell football recruit who made a huge jump athletically over the past 12 months. He became one of the few Ohio athletes to win both the 110-meter hurdles and the 100 dash at the same state meet.
Running just five minutes after his hurdle victory, he needed every ounce of energy to win the 100 in 10.97 seconds — just three-hundredths of a second faster than Hunting Valley University School senior Justin Chappell.
“I thought I was going to be OK until the second-to-last step when he came into my field of vision,” Moody said afterward. “I knew then it was going to come down to the lean [at the finish line].”
The Bulldogs didn’t reach their team goal — they finished nine points behind champion Pemberville Eastwood for the title — and Warren Harding’s boys also went home disappointed with a third-place finish.
But, in all, there were plenty of highlights. Here’s a few more:
-A terrific Division I performance.
Because the area has so few Division I programs, and because the regional meet is so talent-rich, the Valley qualified just 12 individual athletes to Columbus.
But those athletes were among the elite, as Pachol, Boardman senior Corey Linsley (state champion in the discus and runner-up in the shot put), Canfield junior Dustin Brode (shot put champion) and Warren Harding junior Deaver Williamson (100 dash champion) took home titles.
Linsley also helped his throwing coach, Ed Lewis, retire in style, giving Lewis his first champion in 39 years of coaching track and field.
-Tier One of the Inter Tri-County League captured four titles.
East Palestine’s boys 4x100 relay, Crestview senior Jakob Leon (high jump) and Mineral Ridge sophomore Dan Skiba (long jump) earned Division III state titles, while United senior Victoria Bates (shot put) won a Division II crown.
-Mooney boys repeat in the 4x100 relay.
Despite senior Matt McWilson’s hamstring injury, the Cardinals won their second straight sprint relay title in an event with almost no margin of error.
McWilson couldn’t run at last week’s regional meet, so freshman Roosevelt Griffin stepped in and helped them advance. It was the second straight year a freshman served as a successful injury replacement, with Charles Brown filling in for Scott Johnson last year on the title-winning relay.
With McWilson back at 85 percent on Saturday, he joined Johnson and juniors Ray Vinopal and Braylon Heard atop the medal stand. Afterward, as Heard headed to prepare for his 200-meter race, he placed his gold medal around Griffin’s neck.
“My hamstring kills right now, but in the race, you rarely think about the pain,” McWilson said afterward. “It was just about coming in first place.
“I was doing it for these guys. This is my last time running track and it feels good to go out like this.”
-Warren Harding’s emergence.
Although the Raiders didn’t win the team title, they made another step toward becoming one of the state’s elite track teams, winning their first regional title (over Cleveland Glenville, no less) and finishing a strong third in the team standings.
Their disappointment afterward was proof that Harding expects to become a perennial contender.
This weekend also served as a nice finale for the Steel Valley Conference, with Harding and Mooney capturing track titles and the Ursuline softball team finishing as state runners-up.
scalzo@vindy.com