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Tigers tame AAC’s top tier with strong team efforts
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Howland Kaylee Redon places first with 15' 1" in the Girls Long Jump at Poland High School
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Canfield Tyler Mettille (red) places first in the Boys 110 Meter Hurdles with Howland Dante Marsh, on right, trailing right behind him at Poland High School, Tuesday May 12, 2009.
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Poland's Robert Balzano places first for the Boys 400 Meter Dash at Poland High School, Tuesday May 12, 2009
Howland’s Nicole Pachol and Poland’s Robert Balzano turned in strong individual performances.
By JOE SCALZO
Vindicator sports staff
POLAND —With a pair of starting blocks in his hand and a tired look on his face, Howland High boys track coach Sean Borawiec looked more like one of his athletes than a man who just coached his team to its first league title in six years.
“I’m overwhelmed. Tired. Old. Hungry,” Borawiec said, cracking a grin. “I’m so exhausted right now.”
Geez. Anything positive he wants to mention?
“Oh yeah,” he said after claiming the first All-American Conference Red Tier title. “We’re really excited. Everyone came together and we had a lot of young guys step up, which is exactly what we needed.
“We’re spread thin with only 22 kids, so for us we needed everyone to compete at another level.”
Howland’s girls coach, Dan Libert, was equally satisfied, although he’s the first to admit he’s been blessed with some fantastic athletes this season.
“It makes my job easy,” said Libert, whose team also won. “I just try to stay out of the way.”
When asked when Howland’s girls last won a league track crown, the third-year coach admitted he had no idea — and neither did anyone else on his staff.
“This is the first time in a long time when we’ve beaten Poland and Canfield on the same day,” he said. “They’re tough every year.”
The Howland girls rode the talents of senior Nicole Pachol, who is turning in one of the most impressive springs in recent memory. Pachol won the 100-meter dash, 100 hurdles (by more than a second), 300 hurdles (by more than four seconds) and anchored the third-place 4x400 relay as the Tigers slipped past Canfield 115-107.
Sophomore Kaylee Redon won the long jump and the shot put (it’s extremely rare for an athlete to be good in both those events) for the Tigers, while junior Alicia Taylor (200), sophomore Kathryn Chambers (800), senior Kelly Barzak (discus) and sophomore Nia Grant (high jump) also claimed individual victories.
“We’ve got talent everywhere,” said Libert, “When you add Pachol to that, it’s pretty nice.”
Howland’s boys edged Poland 109-103, essentially clinching the title on the second-to-last event when Aaron Sutton cruised to victory in the 3200.
“I didn’t even look at the score until about two-thirds of the way through,” said Borawiec. “On paper, we’re 15 points behind Poland and Canfield, so we’re excited to get the win.”
The Tiger boys don’t have anyone equal to Pachol — Poland junior Robert Balzano played that role on Tuesday — but they have a lot of versatile athletes, none better than junior Mike Mangiarelli, who placed second in the 100 and 200 and earned victories in the 4x100 and the long jump. Sutton also captured the 1600 title and Dave Nelson won the 800, but the Tigers seemed to rely more on silver and bronze to earn the team gold.
“This is the last real team meet of the year and it was definitely a team win,” said Borawiec.
Balzano, meanwhile, claimed four victories and was the surprise of the meet. He was his typical self in the 400 — he won the event by almost two seconds — but also won the 100 and 200 with personal-best times.
When Poland’s coaches first approached him about the increased workload (which included semifinals), he wasn’t thrilled.
“I’m a little lazy, to be honest with you,” he said. “I didn’t expect my times to be this good.”
His mark in the 100 was 11.09, breaking his previous best of 11.3. He ran 22.53 in the 200 — the first time he’s ever broken 23 seconds.
Still, the 400 is his race and Tuesday’s meet was a good indication that he’s in top form heading into next week’s district meet.
Balzano, who grew up in Florida, is among Ohio’s best at that distance and is looking to improve on last year’s fourth-place finish at the Division II state meet when he was the only underclassman in the top eight.
“There’s only one person back who beat me last year, but there’s always new competition coming up,” he said.
Balzano tries not to obsess over statewide times, but he’s admits he’s aware of the competition.
“Usually people tell me,” he said. “I just want to get back to state and improve on how I did.
“We’ll see how it goes.”
scalzo@vindy.com