Boardman runners, throwers compete at nationals

Eight members of the Boardman girls track team traveled to Greensboro, N.C., to compete in the National Scholastic Outdoor Track and Field Championships June 14-16 on the campus of North Carolina A&T.

The girls had to make qualifying marks in their respective events throughout the regular season to be able to compete in this prestigious meet. The meet consisted of competitors from all over the country.

“The girls competed very hard at this meet and were so impressed with the outstanding competition they had from all over the country,” said Boardman coach Denise Gorski. “These girls represented themselves and their families, Boardman High School and their community very well.

“For Koch and Moore, it was a great way to end their outstanding high school track careers. For the underclassmen, it was a motivator for them to be back next year and to do even better.”

Junior Giovanna Silvestri qualified in two individual events, the shot put and discus. In the shot put competition, she placed 13th out of 20 throwers with a best toss of 34-7 Ω. In the discus, she threw 106-8 to place 17th out of 24 throwers.

Senior Tori Moore and freshman Heaton O’Hara also qualified in two events. In their first event, the sprint medley, they teamed with senior Lesley Koch and sophomore Nikki Hillard. The first two legs were the 100-meter dash run by Koch and Hillard, the second leg was the 200 (Moore) and the final leg was the 400 (Heaton O’Hara).

The girls had a season-best performance of 1:56.52 to beat their previous best time of 1:59.9 and finished 14th out of 16 teams.

The 4x800 relay team of Moore, Heaton O’Hara, freshman Regan O’Hara and sophomore Emma Schwendeman ran 10:00.17 to place 24th out of 30 teams.

Freshman Jordan Grantonic qualified in the freshman mile where only 30 athletes were accepted in this event. She qualified with a 5:23, but was injured the last few weeks of the season and ran 6:01 at the meet.

The trip for the girls was sponsored by local businesses. The girls wore national qualifying T-shirts with all the sponsors’ names on the back of the shirt. The total amount of sponsorship money raised was $2,300.

“On behalf of the girls, their parents and myself, I can’t thank the community sponsors enough for making this trip possible for the athletes and myself,” said Gorski. “The meet director, Jim Spier, saw the shirts and couldn’t say enough about how wonderful it was to see such community support.”