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Two Falcons qualify in four running events
By charles grove
austintown
Loads of talented Division I athletes are headed to regional competition after they punched their tickets at Friday’s district meet at Austintown Fitch High School.
Running on their home track, senior Tyra Barnes and sophomore Eva Rivera qualified to the regional meet in four different events, the 4x100, 4x200, 4x400 and the 200 dash.
“This is amazing. It feels great,” Barnes said after finishing second to Warren Harding’s Justice Richardson in the 200 dash. “It’s my last year to do it and to do it with Eva right next to me feels great.
“We push each other every day.”
Finishing runners-up to Richardson, who also won the 100 dash and was a member of the 4x200 and 4x100 winning teams, provides the Falcon duo with more motivation to try to edge her the next time they meet up at next week’s regional at Fitch.
“It gives us the motivation to go out there and get first next time,” Rivera said. “It’s just going to push us even more.”
Richardson said she’s excited by the progress she’s made since her freshman year, and has the goal of outworking her competition in preparation for the regional meet and hopefully for her, another state meet appearance.
“I definitely have been working so hard and I’ve come back even stronger and faster,” Richardson said.
Even though the top four in each event qualified for regionals, Richardson said she wasn’t taking it easy and attempting to coast to an appearance in the next round.
“The goal is to always win so I always go in with that mindset,” Richardson said. “I know nobody works harder than me so that’s what I always rely on. There’s more competition in the next round so I’m going to have to work even harder.”
Aisha Jackson and Gariana Bercheni kicked off the track events by running away with the 100-meter hurdles competition finishing first and second. Bercheni, who also won the 300 hurdles, was all smiles after achieving a personal best in the 300 hurdles.
“I expected to dominate but I wasn’t expecting a personal record,” Bercheni said. “It’s a very big step moving onto regionals and hopefully to state.”
When asked about the Raider female dominance at the event, Bercheni said the team was simply meeting expectations.
“We’ve been held to a higher standard,” she said. “It’s just been expected of us.”
Harding’s coaching staff declined to comment at the event.
On the boys side, Canfield’s Chase Kern took down last year’s district champion, Solon’s Danny Cohen, on an exciting final lap. Kern finished second to Cohen in last year’s district meet.
“The gameplan going in was to hang with him for three laps and then the last lap come on as hard as I could and pull away from him,” Kern said. “I knew it would come down to me and him with a lap to go. I just wanted to outlast his surge.
“I knew he’s a heck of a competitor and I knew he’d be there. [This result] is a nice little flip flop.”
The word dominate wouldn’t do Boardman’s Brendon Lucas justice in terms of his performance. The senior won the 100, 200 and 400 meter events while also helping the 4x400 relay finish third, qualifying for regionals in four events. However, Lucas doesn’t feel the job is anywhere near complete at this point.
“I don’t feel like I’ve completed my task yet,” Lucas said. “My goal is to win state in either the 200 or 400 so I’m not settling for this. I want to keep personal records coming. We got a new coach this year and his workouts have been targeted for mid-distance events and it’s done me pretty well.”
Lucas missed all last year with a injured Achilles tendon and wants to prove that even with a significant injury, you can still come back to compete at a high level.
“I want to show that missing an entire season doesn’t mean it’s all over for you,” Lucas said. “You can come back better and stronger.”
Other individuals that qualified for regionals on the girls side include Canfield’s Lara Quirk (100 hurdles), East’s Jahniya Bowers (100), Canfield’s Ashley Ventimiglia (1600), Boardman’s Arianna Cuevas (400), Boardman’s MaKayla D’Eramo (300 hurdles), Fitch’s Lauren Dolak (800), Boardman’s Casey Zaitzew (3200). East’s girls 4x200 relay also qualified for regionals.
Individuals on the boys side that qualified for regionals include East’s Dez’meon Allen (100), Boardman’s Chris Butler (1600), Fitch’s Earl Scott (400), Fitch’s Devin Moore (300 hurdles), Harding’s Theran Hargrove (200), Fitch’s Andrew Green (3200) and Howland’s Vincent Mauri (3200).
Other boys relay teams who qualified for regionals include Austintown Fitch (4x200, 4x100, 4x400), Howland (4x200), East (4x100), Harding (4x100), and Boardman (4x400).