Boardman Sports Briefs

Boardman boys track team finishes as county runners-up

The Boardman Spartans finished as Mahoning County runners-up for the fourth consecutive season following the championship meet at Fitch.

The Spartans opened the meet by placing first in the 4x800 with the team of seniors Alan Burns and Justin Maroni and juniors Josh Suarez and Nick Long. In the 100 meter dash, freshman Sheldon Broyles placed seventh overall. The 200 meter dash saw sophomore Brendan Lucas place fourth and senior Brian Bodrick place seventh.

The 400 meter run had Lucas in second overall followed by Suarez in sixth place for the Spartans. Burns was county champion in the 800 and 1600 with Maroni in third in the 1600 as well. Maroni then placed third in the 3200 with Long in fifth. In the hurdle events, senior Jeff Bean placed second and sophomore AJ Pantaleo placed seventh in the 110’s while Pantaleo took third and Bean took fourth in the 300’s.

Senior Turel Thompson finished fourth in the long jump, while Bean and freshman Richard Fisher were third and seventh overall in the high jump. In the sprint relays, the 4x100 team of Broyles, Pantaleo, Thompson, and Bodrick finished third.

The 4x200 team of sophomore Tyler Kellam, Lucas, Thompson, and Bodrick finished fourth. The 4x400 team of Broyles, Kellam, Suarez, and Lucas finished third overall.

The Spartans placed senior Steve Brown and junior Dan Liptak second and third overall in the pole vault and senior Sean Lonardo and freshman George Wallace were seventh and eigth in the shot put. Rounding out the scorers was senior Mike Sferra placing seventh in the disc.

Boardman girls track are county runners-up

At the recent Mahoning County Championship meet, the Boardman girls track team gave defending champion Austintown Fitch a battle, but the Spartans came up 11 points short of winning the meet. They scored 171 points and Fitch won with 182 while West Branch finished in third place with a total of 101 points. The Spartans and Falcons traded places most of the meet with a three-six point difference separating them. Out of 17 events, the Lady Spartans took first place in six events and were runners-up in six events.

The meet was wrapped up for the Falcons going into the last event, the 4 x 400 meter relay, but the Boardman relay team won the event in the race to the finish. The girls team has won two relay meets, the Dover and Bedford Relays, and they are now runners-up in the County Meet. They have an overall dual meet record of 3-1 and 1-1 in the the Federal League standings.

Federal League standings

The Backyard Ballers, a local sixth-grade AAU basketball team coached by Dwayne Wilson of Poland and assisted by John Ryan of Boardman, recently won its fourth straight tournament. So far, the team has won the Wadsworth, Hubbard, Youngstown and Garfield Heights tournaments. They have a record of 23-2. Team members are Vince Armeni (St. Christine’s), Chris Brooks (South Range), Michael Cougras (Poland), Tommy Fryda (Boardman), Reese Leone (West Branch), Carson Ryan (Struthers), Jared Lesko (Struthers), Zac Ryan (Boardman) and Dante DiGentano (St. Charles).

Send us your news

If you’re a spring sports coach or the parent of an athlete, we need your help. In order to get teams and players the recognition they deserve, we want to showcase them in our pages. You can email us at neighbors@vindy.com.

You don’t have to be a writer — just send us the information and we’ll put it all together. When emailing pictures, send them as JPEG files as large as possible. Provide caption information and where people are located from left to right, front row to back.

Neighbors wants spring sports news

It’s spring sports season. Neighbors wants to be there every step of the way. If you’re a spring sports coach or the parent of an athlete, we need you help. In order to get teams and players the recognition they deserve, we want to showcase them in our pages. We can only do that if you commit to sending us game reports and photos each week. If you send it, it will get in.

You can email us at neighbors@vindy.com. You don’t have to be a writer — just send us the information and we’ll put it all together. When emailing pictures, send them as JPEG files as large as possible. Provide caption information and where people are located from left to right, front row to back. The sports news we’re looking for ranges from varsity high school teams down to middle school and even elementary and recreational leagues.

We look forward to hearing from you and celebrating this season’s successes.