Spartans win county championship

Boardman’s Mark Hadley raced to a second-place finish in a time of 16:27, outpacing more than 145 competitors, to lead the Spartans to their ninth consecutive Mahoning County Cross Country Championship Sept. 27 at a wet and muddy Austintown Community Park.

Boardman outscored second-place Fitch 29-44. Struthers was third with 62 points and Canfield was a distant fourth place with 100.

The Spartans placed nine runners in the top 25. Following Hadley were classmates Alan Burns and Justin Maroni in fourth and sixth places in times of 16:58 and 17:55, respectively. They were followed by junior Sam Sheronovich in 11th in a time of 18:12, sophomore Jacob Kelleck (15th, 18:32), sophomore Trevor Leyden (19th, 18:55), freshman Juan Santiago (21st, 19:04), senior Jacob Kelleck (22nd, 19:10) and junior Colton Jenkins (23rd, 19:12).

“We take a lot pride in being the best distance program in Mahoning County,” said Spartans head coach John Phillips. “Fitch gave us all they had – they always do when we face them – but we hung on and came out on top.”

The Spartans were sporting their ‘throwback’ jerseys on Sept. 27 paying tribute to the 2003 team that started the nine-year county title run.

“We are at the end of a grueling three weeks and sporting the throwbacks was a chance to have a little fun, honor our past teams and reward our guys for their hard work during this tough part of our schedule,” explained Phillips.

This week’s ‘Runner of the Week’ award was given to sophomore Trevor Leyden who has had back-to-back strong races at both Malone and the county meet.