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Salem’s boys seize home-field advantage and win district title
By JON MOFFETT
Salem
The Salem Quakers felt right at home as the host team of the Division II district championship track meet. The boys team won the event with 93.5 points.
Senior Dustin Matak scored 20 individual points by winning the 100- and 200-meter dashes. And he added another 20 points for two first-place relay teams. Matak and the Quakers won the 4x100- and 4x200-meter relays.
“Not a bad day at all,” Matak said following his final event, the 200-meter dash.
The Salem 4x200-meter relay, consisting of Matak, seniors Ben Eisel and Tyler Cosma and sophomore Zack Penick, set the district meet record at Thursday’s preliminaries. That team, minus Cosma, won the state title in the event last year. They also set the meet record in the 4x100-meter relay.
The top four places in each event advance to the regional meet next week. The meet, held in Ravenna, is the last stop before the state meet.
Matak said the Quakers are aiming for a repeat performance in Columbus.
“Our team here can win state,” he said. “We won state last year, and we’ve already beaten our best time from last year. This team has great potential.”
He added that he is also aiming for an individual title.
“Well [individual and relay events] both have equal value, because it’s a team cause,” he said. “Right now we’re all working on qualifying. When we get to state, then we can start worrying about times.”
Also focusing their attention on a state title is the 4x200-meter girls relay team from Mooney. The team also set the meet record in preliminaries, and won the events in the finals with a time of 1:44.95. The time was just shy of the meet record set by the school last year.
“Honestly, God willing, I think we can make it to state,” said junior anchor Elena Andino-Esparra.
The team won the event by almost five seconds over second-place Liberty. Andino-Esparra said the key is to treat the race like it is coming down to the wire.
“I just imagine somebody is right there next to me,” she said. “Even if they’re five yards back, I pretend I hear footsteps next to me. And that always pushes me.”
Andino-Esparra also won the long jump. Her mark of 16-7.75 was more than a foot better than second place.
“I’m glad that I got to advance to the regional meet, but I was only a couple of inches from the record [of 17-3.5] which I knew I could’ve gotten,” she said.
She also explained how she uses mental tricks to help motivate her during her jumps.
“I’m good with sending motivational messages to myself,” she said. “In the regular season, I would have someone stand next to the pit, and I would jump past them,” she said. “There was a cone there today, and I kept jumping past it. If there is a marker there, I’m going to keep jumping past it.”
Also chasing a record was West Branch senior hurdler Taylor Kring. Kring tried to best her own meet record in the 100-meter hurdles. She didn’t’ break the record, but she did win the event. And the 300-meter hurdles. And was on the first-place 4x400-meter relay.
“I didn’t feel as well as I wanted to during the 100 hurdles,” she said. “I clipped the seventh or eighth hurdle, which slowed me down. But when you finish first, you can’t really complain. I’m going to regionals, and that’s what’s important.”
Finishing second overall for the boys was Poland High, which was 2.5 points behind Salem. Canton Central Catholic won the meet for the girls, and Mooney was the runner-up. The teams finished with 83.5 and 76, respectively.