Boardman High School boys track opens season with a win

The Boardman boys track team began the 2016 season with a 87-62-25 victory over the Garrettsville Garfield G-Men and the Valley Christian Eagles on March 29.

The Spartans opened the meet with a victory by senior Nathan Hadley, senior Adam Deeley, senior Brett Brunko and sophomore Mark Moradian in the 4x800 meter relay. The next event, the 110-meter hurdles, senior Jacob Rauschenberg placed fourth. In the 100-meter dash, freshman Josh Rodriguez took second and freshman Manny Perez was third. The 4x200 meter relay team of junior Kobe Adu-Poku, sophomore Justice Jama, senior Canon Carlile and junior Jeff Kollar placed first.

“Today was a chance to get our freshmen acclimated to high school track,” said Boardman Head Coach John Phillips. “We also wanted to place our experienced guys in certain events to maximize their training.”

In the 1600-meter run, junior Nathaniel Ams placed second and sophomore Jimmy Lagese was fourth. Adu-Poku placed first in the 400-meter run and sophomore Ethan Himes was second. In the 300-meter hurdles, the Spartans took two scoring spots with Carlile in second and Rauschenberg fourth.

In the 800-meter run, freshman Trevor Boggess placed third. The 200-meter dash was won by senior Brendon Lucas with Himes in third. The next event was the 3200-meter run which saw junior Nick Digiacomo place second, sophomore Luke Hetzel place third and sophomore Nick Lascola place fourth. The 4x400 relay team of Adu-Poku, freshman Che Trevena, Kollar and freshman Nick Torres took first.

In the field events, junior Richard Fisher placed third in the long jump. In the high jump, Jama placed first and Torres second. In the discus, junior George Wallace was first, senior Markeese Haynes was third and senior Jason Jama was fourth. Haynes was second in the shot put with Wallace in third and sophomore Steven Amstutz in fourth.

Finally, in the pole vault, Fisher was first, junior Dan Raver second, sophomore Gavin Yi was third and junior Vi Trihn Luu was fourth.

“Garrettsville Garfield has a strong group of throwers so our guys had quite a challenge today,” said Phillips. “Credit our kids and coaches John Pallini and Doug Kephart for rising up to that challenge.”

The ‘BW-3 Track Meet MVP’ was awarded to senior Markeese Haynes for his efforts in the throws.