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’Dogs have their day
Photo
Poland senior Sean Murphy, third from left, and Lakeview senior Albert Brannan, right, cross the fi nish line Thursday afternoon in the 4x800-meter relay at the Division II regional meet in Ravenna. Poland was third and Lakeview fourth behind Bay Village Bay and Elyria Catholic.
Poland, Lakeview advance in D2
By Joe Scalzo
RAVENNA
After running the fastest 800-meter leg of his life, Poland senior Sean Murphy looked for one of his teammates to help him celebrate, then looked for the nearest bush to help him, uh, cool down.
To put it another way, Murphy left it all on the track, then he left it all next to the track.
“That was money,” said Bulldogs girls track coach Gabby Moore, patting him on the back after Murphy helped Poland reach the state meet in the 4x800 relay for the first time since 2007.
“I wanted it so badly,” he said.
“That’s how you have to run at this point,” she said. “You either want it or you don’t.”
Murphy ran a 1:55.4 on his anchor leg — anything under two minutes in the 200 is considered tremendous — as Poland finished third with a time of 8:04.73 at Thursday’s Division II regional meet at Ravenna Stadium.
Lakeview’s relay — which has jokingly nicknamed itself “Team Stud” — finished fourth in 8:05.07.
Murphy was a freshman on the last Poland 4x800 team to advance to Columbus, then finished fifth as a sophomore (the top four in each event advance) and 12th last spring.
“We knew we were close going in and we knew we all had to run good, which we did,” said Murphy, who was joined by Kevin Krumpak, Kyle Filicky and Matt Gleydura. “It took a couple minutes [afterward] for it to sink in that I felt [bad].”
Was it worth it?
“Oh yeah,” he said. “It’s the worst best feeling in the world.”
The two relays will be joined in Columbus by discus throwers Steve Woodyard of LaBrae (who finished second) and Keary Iarussi of Struthers (third).
Woodyard, a senior, is making his third state appearance while it’s the first for Iarussi, a junior.
“I’m excited to go back down,” said Woodyard, who placed seventh last year. “I’m feeling really good and it’ll be nice to see some people I know again and get some good competition.”
Iarussi didn’t qualify until his final throw on Thursday, popping off a personal-best of 154 feet, 11 inches.
It was a huge improvement over last season, when he finished just ninth at the district meet.
“I didn’t start out very well but I knew I had to come into finals and throw really well,” said Iarussi, who is coached by former Springfield High standout Nick Panezich and who won a district title last weekend. “I knew I could throw well. I just had to work my way into finals and on each throw in the finals, my throws went up 5 feet.
“I’m pretty excited. Now I’ve just got to go for it at state.”
LaBrae junior Andre Elkins placed third in the long jump and Southeast junior Damian Pennington was fourth. Both are making their first trips to Columbus.
No area girls advanced to the state meet. Thursday’s girls finals were in the shot put, high jump and 4x800 relay.
Saturday’s second day begins at 11:30 a.m. with field events, followed by running finals at 12:30 p.m.