Cousins earn regional royalty
By JOE SCALZO
NAVARRE
Springfield senior Andria Lyons was running a little late by the time she arrived at Friday’s Division III regional, was competing at a venue where she historically hadn’t done her best and was coming off a disappointing district performance.
Fortunately, three strikes only hurt you in baseball.
Lyons set a personal best in the long jump with a leap of 17 feet, 1/4 inch, breaking the school record, winning the regional title and earning a spot at the state meet.
“I knew the competition would be better than last year,” said Lyons, who is making her second straight state appearance. “I was just hoping I would jump better than I did the other night.
“I just wasn’t feeling it.”
Lyons shared the previous school record of 16-101/4 but hadn’t jumped better than 16-3 in previous regional meets at Fairless High School. But she was jumping in the high 16s all afternoon, which is a good omen for next week.
“Last year, I was just happy to make it,” said Lyons, who finished 11th in the high jump and 13th in the long jump at Columbus. “This year, I want to at least get in the top eight and beat what I did last year.”
A few minutes earlier, her cousin, Springfield sophomore Stephen Lyons, became only the second Tiger to win a regional shot put title, throwing a personal-best 55-63/4 to erase some bad memories from last year’s regional meet.
“It’s amazing,” said Lyons, who finished a disappointing eighth last season. “I only threw 47 last year, so I guess I choked.
“But I just erased that and focused on this year.”
Lyons is within reach of the school record of 60 feet, which is held by his coach, Nick Panezich.
“He got me mentally ready for today and excited for it,” said Lyons, who has trained since last July. “Last year I wasn’t as into it.”
So is he going to break all of Panezich’s records?
“Oh yeah,” he said, laughing. “Well, maybe not all of them.
“But I’ve got two more years left.”
Columbiana senior Nick Melone won the 100 and 200 to emerge as one of two Mahoning Valley athletes to win two individual events this weekend. McDonald senior Joh’Vonnie Mosley (shot and discus) was the other. United junior Emily Bokanovich (400) and Maplewood senior Eric Rupe (1600) also won individual events.
“Pretty awesome,” Melone said. “I felt really good today.”
Melone ran a 10.98 in the 100 and was the only runner to break 11 seconds all weekend. He was neck-and-neck with several runners in the first 100 meters of the 200, then pulled away down the stretch.
“It seems like the end of that first turn of the 200, I don’t know if I slow down or what, but basically I just focus on getting my knees up and getting them at the end,” he said. “The longer the race, the more nervous I get.
“But as soon as the gun goes off, it all goes away and I just concentrate on what I’m doing.”
Lowellville senior Monica Ciarniello took a similar approach in the 3200, focusing on her lap times and not on the other competitors. Consequently, she erased the drama early, finishing with a personal-best time of 11:27.90 to win by 28 seconds while lapping five runners.
“If I don’t concentrate on people and just concentrate on time, I’m a lot more relaxed,” she said. “I just kept pace the whole time and figured if anyone beat me, they’d have to beat my time. I knew if I got caught up in places, I might not do as well.”