Harding girls, Lakeview boys claim crowns

May 6, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

cortland

One streak ended, another began and yet another will remain intact; at least until next season.

The Harding girls outdistanced Maplewood, 135-72, while the host Lakeview boys topped McDonald, 114.5-108, to capture the 17th Trumbull County track and field meet on Thursday at Don Richards Memorial Stadium.

The Raiders won for the second consecutive year while Lakeview’s boys ended Harding’s streak of seven consecutive crowns.

“Our girls look at what our boys have accomplished and they want to do the same thing,” said Harding girls coach Charles Penny. “They realize that it takes a lot of hard work and the good thing is that we’re not yet peaking.”

Lakeview coach Mark Swinning said it’s even more exciting when it comes down to the final moments to decide a champion.

“We were lucky to have the depth that we had with a couple [athletes] hurt,” said Swinning. “Our younger kids saw their opportunity and really stepped up for us today.”

Cameron Beebe eclipsed the meet record he set last year in the pole vault by nearly 18 inches when he cleared 12 feet, 5 inches.

“This is my best-ever height in high school so I hope to build on it in the weeks to come,” said Beebe. “Each time out I have gotten a little bit better so this is really a good feeling for me today.”

It won’t be until next season, however, when fans will look back and appreciate the accomplishment of McDonald senior Matthias Tayala.

Tayala maintained his stranglehold on the discus, winning his fourth consecutive county title with a heave of 176-7, earning field MVP honors on a day when he didn’t feel gratified with his performance.

“I just don’t feel like I am where I should be at this point in the season so I need to get to work, and fast,,” he said.

“Call it a lack of throwing, perhaps because of the weather but there are no excuses. I just didn’t throw very well today. “I might go home and throw all night so I can be ready for Saturday’s [Optimist] meet at Austintown Fitch,” Tayala said.

Darius Harris of Niles, who scored 21.5 points, was the running MVP and McDonald’s Miles Dunlap was the boys overall MVP with 35 of his team’s 108 points.

“I just wanted to come in and score some points in order to help my team,” said Dunlap. “My main goal was to score as many points as possible.”

Alexandra Allen of Warren Harding was the running MVP for the girls with 20.5 points while Kaylee Redon of Howland, who had 15 points, earned field MVP.

Racing to overall girls MVP honors , was Lauren Schattinger, who accounted for 29.5 or more than half of Lakeview’s 57 total.

She set a personal record by winning the 100-meter dash (12.23 seconds) and had a season best (25.93) while winning the 200.

“It’s exciting to have such a nice day overall, both personally and team-wise,” said Schattinger. “We just put together our 4x100-meter relay team so to finish third was a great accomplishment.”