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Senior gives Rockets Sparks they needed
By Joe Scalzo
NAVARRE
Three years ago, Maplewood’s boys track team captured the Division III regional title in the most exciting way possible, breaking the school record in the day’s final event, the 4x400-meter relay, to win the team title by one point.
On Friday, Rockets senior Allen Sparks decided to end the suspense one event early.
Maplewood entered the 3200-meter run trailing Warren JFK by 15 points, but Rockets coach Mark Yoder was confident that Tristan Dahmen (who hadn’t run a race all day) would pick up 10 first-place points.
“When he’s fresh, he moves pretty well,” Yoder said.
Sparks was a different story. He was a little more than an hour removed from placing second in the 1600 on one of those days whem you wished Fairless’ stadium infield had a swimming pool. He needed to finish at least fourth to tie JFK. Third place would win it.
“Sparks was a big question mark,” Yoder said.
Entering the final turn, Sparks sat in fourth behind Aquinas junior Jacob Caniford.
“It was really in the last 200 meters before I decided I really wanted it,” he said. “And I just went after it. I didn’t know exactly where the fifth guy was, I just threw it into sixth gear and went after the third guy.”
Sparks finished third to pick up six points and give the Rockets a one-point edge over JFK, which didn’t have a 4x400 relay. Maplewood did — it finished sixth — but his performance eliminated any chance of finishing tied due to something unforeseen, such as a disqualification.
“Boy did he [Sparks] show a lot of guts coming through that,” Yoder said. “Passing Caniford from Aquinas right at the end of the race was huge. It took all the pressure off the 4x4.”
Derek Morrison won the 1600 and Jake Hall won the 800 for Maplewood, which finished with 62 points to JFK’s 58.
The Eagles’ finish was pretty impressive considering they qualified just three boys to regionals, with senior Chad Zallow (a Youngstown State recruit) breaking his own meet record in the 110 hurdles (13.84), matching his own meet record in the 300 hurdles (37.03) and winning the 100.
“I left it all on the line,” said Zallow, who has won two state titles in the 110 hurdles and another in the 300 hurdles in 2013. “That’s the hardest I’ve probably ever went [in the 300 hurdles]. I like to give people a little preview for state.”
His teammate, Jacob Coates, won the 200 and finished second in the 100 and A.J. Grant won the high jump.
In girls competition, Springfield freshman Shantel Springer won the long jump with a leap of 16 feet, 81/2 — a half-inch off her personal best — to help the Tigers finish an area-best sixth in the team standings. St. Thomas Aquinas cruised to the team title with 92 points to Gilmour Academy’s 64.
When asked how a freshman could do so well, Springer laughed and said, “I have no clue. I just went out there and tried to jump as far as I can.”
Springer started jumping in seventh grade but was home-schooled last year to focus on gymnastics. When asked if she thought Friday’s performance was possible, she said, “I thought maybe. I jumped pretty consistently all year, but I was not expecting to go to state my first year.”
JFK sophomore Antonella LaMonica was the only other area girl to win a regional title, finishing first in the 100 to go with a fourth-place finish in the 200. The top four placers advance to the state meet.
“I just tried to push myself so hard to get in there,” she said. “I’m only 5 foot [tall] so it’s tough to be able to keep up with the rest of them, so I just push harder and train harder to stay with them.”