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McDonald’s Magill qualifies for state
By BRIAN DZENIS
NAVARRE
He’s not an Olympic hopeful. He’s not a state record holder. He’s Evan Magill and that’s good enough to go to state.
McDonald has a history of great discus throwers. Kent State’s Matthias Tayala is pursuing an Olympic bid and Christian Smith won a state title last year and holds the record in that event. Once Magill got past trying to fill those shoes, his game improved.
“[Coach Mary Domitrovich] told me ‘Evan, you’re not going to be them, you’re Evan Magill. You got to believe in what you can do,’” Magill said Wednesday at the Division III regional meet. “After we had that talk, my numbers started to increase.”
He averaged around 130 feet per throw during the season, but at Fairless High School, the junior threw 149-01 to take fourth place and earn his first trip to Columbus.
Magill is one of 18 area athletes who earned a spot at state on the first day of the Region 9 meet. McDonald has nine of those and that number could go up on Friday.
“The 4x800 boys and girls [are going] so it’s going to be a fun bus ride down, I got a lot of friends going,” Magill said.
The girls 4x800 team of seniors Heidi Hoffman and Malina Mitchell and sophomores Alyssa Lynch and Claire Hoffman took third place (9:50.60) behind winner St. Thomas Aquinas and Canton Central Catholic.
“We were thinking they were going to be anywhere from third to fifth,” Domitrovich said. “They dropped their time considerably from last week, so that’s nice for them and it’s nice to have two seniors [going].”
The boys team of Danny Loomis, C.J. Seitz, Marco Mediati and Lucas Garland beat Trinity by 3.6 seconds to take the fourth and final spot for state (8:09.62). Boys coach Louis Domitrovich called the finish a good omen.
“It’s always important for morale for everybody. With Navarre, you have a love-hate relationship,” Domitrovich said. “One minute it’s cloud nine, the next you’re face down in the gutter and that’s how it’s always been.”
Local distance running juggernaut Maplewood took first in the 4x800. Tristan Dahman, Ethan Sparks, Nick Cowger and Allen Sparks faced a stiff challenge from St. Thomas Aquinas, but pulled ahead on the last two runners to win by 1.29 seconds (7:55.50).
“I’m surprised I didn’t puke today because of the heat,” Allen Sparks said. “It was really intense, but it’s over and I’m really proud of what we did.”
The rest of the running events were preliminaries, so the other state bids came from the field.
Western Reserve’s Cheyene Finne couldn’t make it out of regional as a freshman or sophomore. Then the week before the regional this year, she injured her shoulder.
“I was trying really hard and it was hurting really bad. I just kept icing it and tried to get through,” Finne said. “Watching them fly through the air, I was like ‘Ok, they look like they’ll go far’ and they weren’t going as far as I would have liked.”
She powered through the pain to push the shot put 36-00.50, good enough for fourth place.
“I haven’t lifted or anything in the past week or anything because of it, but I went out and threw my best, so I couldn’t be happier,” Finne said.
Maplewood’s Makayla Pop took third with a 36-03.50 throw.
Kasey Tingler won the long jump on his last jump (21-09.50) to guarantee his state bid in at least one event. He was more concerned about his relay teams than his long jump prowess.
“We’re mainly focused on getting this 4x100 and 4x200 there. I couldn’t care less about winning an individual medal,” Tingler said. “If I can get that with my team, that will be special.”
Rounding out the state qualifiers are United’s Emily Ellyson and Camryn Jarrett, who took second (5-02) and third (5-01) in the high jump.
Not yet clinching a spot at state, but breaking a school record was the Campbell girls 4x200 relay team of Anjanae Finney, Kaleecia Addison, Rontellia Reed and Champagne Jones, who finished second in their heat and seventh overall with a time of 1:48.88. They qualified for Friday’s finals.