Boardman runners win Salem Early Bird title

Boardman sophomore Mark Hadley set a new course record time of 16:22 in leading the Spartans cross country team to a fourth straight Salem Early Bird Invitational Championship.

Hadley broke the record time of 16:40 held by former Boardman runner Sam Deskin.

Finishing right behind Hadley, in second place, was classmate Alan Burns in a personal-best time of 17:06. He was followed by junior Sam Sheronovich, who also set a new personal-best time of 17:41, which was good enough for sixth place overall out of 110 runners.

Sophomore Justin Maroni was 9th overall in a personal-best time of 17:51.

“Our top four guys all ran extremely well. They each set a new personal record and Mark setting a new course record is a tremendous accomplishment,” said Boardman head coach John Phillips.

“We got a tremendous challenge from an improved Howland team and stepped up our performance in order to repeat as invitational champions,” said Phillips. “You never know how a team is going to respond in the first contest of the season, but our guys did what they had to in order to come out on top.”

Also setting a personal record was freshman Nick Long, whose time of 19:15 came in his very first high school race. That performance earned ghim the season’s first “Runner of the Week” honors for 2011.