United’s Bates earns her shot

Division II track

By ERIC HAMILTON

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

SALEM — Fueled by the memory of watching four seniors sweep the Division II regional qualifying spots in the 2008 shot put competition, United High’s Victoria Bates was determined to make this season special.

Heading into Thursday’s district finals, she was in second place and already had locked up a regional berth when the time came for her final throw.

With nothing lose, she spent all the energy she had left and the result was just what she had been thinking about for the past 12 months — a district title and a trip to regionals.

“I just went all out on that one,” said Bates, who won the event with a toss of 37-7 æ. “After finishing fifth here last year, I told myself that this was my year. Those four from last year are out of the way and today was my turn. I’ve worked hard and I have great coaches and without them, this never would have happened.”

Bates has the second-best throw in the state in Division II and is looking forward to a tough regional field next week at Ravenna.

“I always go out there to win it and I like that I’ll have someone to chase next week,” Bates said. “I’m just going to give it my all and see what happens.”

Bates was one of 10 individuals and four relay teams to advance to next week’s regional meet by finishes in the top four of their respective events.

Mahoning Valley competitors swept the regional berths in the shot put as Newton Falls’ Keri Kazimer, West Branch’s Brittany Moore and Poland’s Allison Rice, finished second through fourth to advance.

Niles’ Tony Armstrong was the area’s only other district champion on Thursday. The senior won the long jump by half an inch over United’s Zack Lease with a leap of 20-4 Ω.

Lease took second and Cardinal Mooney freshman Ricki Williams grabbed the fourth and final regional spot with a jump of 19-8 æ.

Salem throwers Mike King (second) and Mike Boggs (third) clinched regional berths in the discus. King bested his teammate by 2 inches, throwing the discus 147-4.

“It’s always fun to beat the older guy,” said King, a sophomore after beating his senior teammate. “But I have to give him some credit because he’s helped me a lot this year. Last year, I was playing baseball and not doing very well, so I gave track a try and I love it.”

Boggs, despite being disappointed with the distance of his throws, is looking forward to his second straight regional competition now that he’ll have a teammate with him.

“It was nerve-wracking last year by myself,” Boggs said. “I’ll like it more this year and I’ll be more comfortable. I just want to get better this week in practice.”

In the girls high jump, the only area athlete to move on to regionals was East Palestine’s Bree Hull, who finished fourth with a leap of 4-10. She claimed the final spot based on the number of missed jumps.

In the 4x800 relay finals, Poland advanced both the boys and girls squads to regional. The boys team of Mike Kurjan, Ryan Shields, Kyle Filicky and Sean Murphy took second, while the quarter of Anna Pompeo, Chelsea Conzett, Eron Sweeney and Samantha Robertson finished fourth.

United’s boys squad (fourth) and Salem’s team (second) also advanced.

In addition to finals in five events on Thursday, preliminary heats were contested in several running events. The top eight times in each event advanced to Saturday’s finals.

Highlighting the track prelims was a pair of record-breaking performances by the Cardinal Mooney girls relay team of Katie Jerek, Elena Andino-Esparra, Natalie Neshite and Alicia Williams.

In the 4x100 event, the quarter posted a time of 49.57 to break the meet record. They followed that up with another record in the 4x200, finishing in a time of 1:44.52.

“That’s the seventh record we’ve broken this year,” said Jerek, who also made the finals in the 200. “We just have great chemistry and have really worked hard. We made the goal to go back to state this year and finish higher than we did last year [fifth]. We have good competition ahead and we’re excited.”

Other noteworthy performances in the preliminaries included West Branch’s Taylor Kring, who had the fastest qualifying times in the 100, 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles. Her 4x400 relay team also advanced to the finals.

Poland’s Alicia Taylor will compete in four events in the finals, despite running with a cast on her left arm. The junior qualified in the 100 and 200 and is part of the 4x200 and 4x400 relays.

Salem’s Dustin Matak will run in the 100, 4x200 and 4x100.