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South Range earns district title
Poland’s boys team finishes fourth
By Greg Gulas
Salem
The South Range girls track and field team narrowly defeated West Branch, 113-108 to capture the Division II district championship Saturday at Salem High School.
Marlington was tops in boys competition with 94 points while Poland placed fourth (64 points), West Branch fifth (62.5 points) and Salem sixth (60 points) as the area’s top boys’ finishers.
The Raiders’ Mollie Pierson and Raianne Mason each won two events while Andrea Oliver won the high jump competition to pace South Range.
The top four finishers in each event qualified for the regional on Thursday and Saturday at Austintown Fitch Falcon Stadium.
“We talked about this at the beginning of the season, telling our kids to just compete and always do their best because good things would happen,” South Range coach Diane Frumpak said. “This is the end result and they deserve this because they’ve worked very hard to get to this point.
“There are so many phenomenal athletes at regionals, we just want to continue bringing our times down with our goal the state.”
Pierson won the 1600 and 3200 meter run; Mason the 100 and 300 meter hurdles; and Oliver captured the high jump.
“My times are better this year and they’re getting better each meet, which is my goal,” Pierson said. “Cross country has definitely helped prepare me for track this year and today I have a big smile on my face because we’re right in the middle of everything.”
Mason, who fell short last year of qualifying for regionals, made sure that didn’t happen again.
“My goal was to run hard and go out and attack every hurdle,” Mason said. “After falling short last year, it’s a really great feeling to now be headed to regionals.
“The 300s are my favorite event because I like having longer distance between hurdles,” Mason said.
Salem’s Megan Lehwald set the new meet record in the long jump with a 17-4 jump, eclipsing the old mark of 17-03.50 set by East Palestine’s Alex Casi in 1999.
“I felt it before I jumped today,” Lehwald said. “I was confident, tried to focus and wanted to get angry which helped me explode.
“You have to let it all hang out and after letting it all hang out today, I feel confident heading to regionals next week.”
Quakers’ teammate Marissa Swindell was a three-time winner, earning top honors in the 200 and 400 meter dash and as part of the school’s 4X200 meter relay team along with Hannah Texter, Lehwald and Julia Dundon.
“I wanted to get a good start, settle in on the back stretch and finish strong in the 400, which turned out to be my personal best,” Swindell said. “In the 200 my legs were completely dead and I was running on pure adrenaline.”
On the boy’s side of the ledger, Zach Robbins of West Branch set a meet record by clearing 6-07, eclipsing the old mark of 6-06 which was set by John Oliver in 1998.
“My calves were hurting yesterday but they felt good today,” Robbins said. “I went to regionals last year and narrowly missed qualifying for state so my expectations this year are to get to state.
“A state title is my goal so I will definitely have to improve on today’s jump if I expect that to happen.”
In girls pole vault competition, Allyson Simmons broke her own meet record by a foot when she cleared 12-06, eclipsing her old mark (11-06) which she set in 2012.