Boys cross country team wins Sweeney Invite

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Freshman Mark Hadley took second overall out of 187 runners Saturday at The Ray Sweeney Invitational at Champion High School in Warren.

Hadley’s time of 16:49 was not only the second best in the race, but a personal best for the Spartan freshman and one of the best times in school history for a ninth-grader. The performance earned Hadley the team’s “Runner of the Week” award.

“I am thrilled for Mark, to already be running in the 16s is a major accomplishment in his young career as a Boardman Spartan,” said Boardman head coach John R. Phillips.

The Spartans finished first out of 15 schools, improving their season mark to 53-3 overall. Aiding in Boardman’s score was fellow freshman Alan Burns at a personal-best 17:09, which was good enough for third overall. He was followed by senior Alex Scott at a personal-best 17:24, which earned the Spartan runner eighth place.

“We really had a great day,” said Phillips. “we had a ton of dropped times and personal bests, and to do that against some good teams is a major step forward for our younger runners.”

Also finishing high for the Spartans was sophomore Sam Sheronovich, who took 16th place with a PR time of 17:54. Classmate Pete Stafford finished in 18:02 — also a personal best and 17th overall in the race.

Setting new personal bests at Champion were seniors Scott and Joe Pallone at 19:27. Juniors setting new personal records were Jacob Whitford at 18:31, Evan Heintz at 18:41, Mike Rich at 19:07, Tom Hayes at 21:16 and Cris Hernandez at 23:50.

Sophomores setting a new career-best were Sheronovich, Stafford, Colton Jenkins at 19:09, Ian Phillips at 19:22, Ryan Key at 19:25, Fletcher Dunham at 20:04, Matt Peyko at 20:45, Matt Carubia at 21:03 and Rick Henneman at 21:17.

Every Spartan freshman set a new personal best, led by Hadley and Burns. Those runners are Justin Maroni at 18:24, Jacob Kelleck at 19:07, Trevor Leyden at 19:53, Nick Hura at 19:59, Matt Parise at 20:05, Steve Brown at 20:33, Skylar Pinkerton-Lamp at 20:37, Aaron Dill at 21:40 and Adam Sinclair at 23:16.

“Our kids just ran great today, it was a lot of fun to be a Boardman Spartan,” said Phillips.