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Devils, Zallow dominate D-III district meet at Springfield
By DAN HINER
NEW MIDDLETOWN
Friday was a special day for McDonald High School track athletes as the boys and girls teams left the Division III district meet at Springfield with championships.
It was special for Warren JFK’s Chad Zallow, too, as he continued to dominate.
“I think it’s a testament to our program,” McDonald head coach Louis Domitrovich said. “Eight years straight is an accomplishment and it’s done differently each year.
“I think the Trumbull County Meet and I think at the district championships, it’s a true team event — you can’t win it with one or two people.
“It takes a large group of guys and we’ve been very fortunate. We have 151 kids in our program — seven through 12. When things are going well, it’s a testament to our coaches. We have some of the most amazing coaches in our area.”
McDonald pole vaulter Tyler Cvetkovich was unable to participate in the events on Friday, but Cvetkovich was able to qualify for the Division III regionals on during the Division II districts on Thursday.
“We vaulted at Lakewood yesterday during the Division II meet. So he qualified up there. Things went well and he’ll be ready for next week at Navarre,” Domitrovich said.
The Blue Devils coach said his team is prepared for the regional meet and he expects another good performance.
“I’m proud of our pole vaulter right now. He worked so hard, he’s doing well and he has a really good opportunity next week,” Domitrovich said. “Our 4x800, we still haven’t run our four fastest so I think that could be a sleeper for the remainder of the year. We got pieces and parts here and there. Just to get the kids in Navarre next week to get some experience, that’s the most important thing.”
McDonald got off to an early start after Christian Smith finished first in the boys shot put, finishing with distance of 53 feet. Albert Yates finished earlier with a distance of 51-11.
Malina Mitchell got the first win for the McDonald girls as she finished with a time of 5:18.24 in the 1600-meter run. Heidi Hoffman finished third in the event. Both runners qualified for regionals.
McDonald’s Iva Domitrovich won the 200 with a time of 26.16, just shy of the meet record of 26.10. McDonald picked up its last points in the final event of the evening — the 3200. Hoffman and Ally Jamison finished second.
Zallow — one of the Mahoning Valley’s top performers — again controlled all his events. Zallow picked up an early win in the 110 hurdles, breaking the meet record with a time of 13.7. In the 100 dash, Zallow (10.78) and his teammate Jacob Coates (10.82) finished first and second. Both runners broke the previous meet record of 10.89.
“I saw the times going in and I thought it was definitely doable,” Zallow said. “I knew that if I ran my race that I could come out with the record. That was a big goal of mine. It’s my senior year and I wanted to leave my mark here.”
The Division III regional meet is next week at Fairless High School in Navarre.