43
Boardman sending four athletes to the college ranks
BOARDMAN
The Boardman Spartans now have four more names to add to their lengthy list of athletes who choose to continue their athletic careers at the collegiate level.
Ashley Cornelius (softball), Lauren Gabriele (basketball), Madison Rast and Dominic Mariano (diving) all put pen to paper and signed national letters of intent Tuesday afternoon at Boardman High School.
Cornelius, who’s in the circle on the diamond, will continue pitching at Grove City College .
“It’s been my dream since I was a little girl,” Cornelius said. “I didn’t care where I went. I just wanted to play softball.”
Before signing, her head coach, Mike Trell, shared a story of how he remembers Cornelius before she walked through the doors of Boardman High: “I remember when she was about nine or 10 years old, we would be playing at Slugger’s and she would be on the side pitching. And we were like, ‘here we go, here’s another girl who wants to pitch’. And she’s put in all the hard work and has really proved herself.”
Lauren Gabriele also planned to play softball in college, but after injuries kept her from the field, she switched gears and chose to move forward with her basketball career as a Mount Union Purple Raider.
“I started out wanting to play softball. I was dead set on it,” Gabriele said. “Mount Union was the first school I looked at and it was for softball and then everything just turned around and I wanted to play basketball.”
Gabriele lettered three times for the Spartans in basketball. She was a two-time first team all AAC, first team All-District and All NEO Inland. She was also named third team All Ohio her senior year and the Silver and Gold Scholarship Award Winner from OHSBCA.
“It’s really exciting,” she said. It’s great to see all the hard work pay off. You think it’s going to be over after high school and then you get the opportunity to keep playing and it’s really special.”
Gabriele will be juggling softball and her studies as a Pre-Med Biology major.
Dominic Mariano and Madison Rast are only the second and third divers in Boardman history to continue their diving careers at the next level.
For Rast, diving was never her plan.
“I was a gymnast for 13 years. After that, I went to diving because it was similar and I found out I was pretty good at it,” Rast said. “My first year I was like, ‘I’m going to get these first three years done,’ but after I’ve done it a lot, it’s my passion. I love doing it.”
Rast is a four-year letter winner in diving. In her senior season, she earned the Northeast Aquatic Conference Champion and Diver of the Year award as well as All-American Conference Champion. She is also a three-year district qualifier and holds the BHS 11 Dive record.
She plans to study Broadcasting at Westminster and hopes to one day work for the Discovery Channel.
Dominic Mariano, who picked up diving in eighth grade at the Boardman Tennis and Swim Club, will continue diving for Malone.
“Right before high school I just started doing crazy stuff on the diving board and someone was like, ‘Oh my gosh, you have to get involved in diving,’” Mariano said. “They gave me coach [Ron] Navarra’s phone number and then I just started going and now here I am.”
Mariano is also a four year letter winner in diving. He earned the Northeast Aquatic Conference Champion and Diver of the Year award as well as All-American Conference Champion during his senior season. He is also a four-year district qualifier, finishing in second place in the Canton sectional meet and in the Top 10 at districts his senior year.
He plans to study Youth Ministry and Missionary Work and eventually wants to educate and coach children.