Allen, Bowers help East girls place second at Poland

April 29, 2018 at 12:08a.m.

Bowers also among event winners

in chilly Poland Invitational

By BOB ETTINGER

POLAND

Not long after East‘s DeShante Allen made her shift to running hurdles, she was ready to give up on the endeavor all together. Sticking with it paid off for her at the Poland Invitational Track and Field Classic on Saturday.

Allen won the 100-meter hurdles in 15.75.

“It’s my first year doing hurdles,” the junior said. “I was scared. The first time I fell, I wanted to quit. I’m proud of myself. It didn’t take a lot of time [to learn to run the event]. I got the hang of it quick. People tell me I’m a natural at hurdles. It wasn’t too hard. There’s a lot of technique to it. People think you just run and jump. You have to know your form and how to get your legs down quick.”

On a cold and dreary day when few runners were at their best, Allen’s time was a personal best.

“The girl running next to me was from Harding,” Allen said. She beat me earlier [in the preliminaries]. She pushed me. It’s cold. I don’t want to be here, but nobody wants to get beat.”

Allen also claimed the title in the long jump, besting Chloe Kosco of Poland, 15-6.75 to 15-4.

“I plan to go to college,”Allen said. “My favorite event is long jump, but I didn’t do too well in that today. I don’t think anybody did. It’s cold. I’m glad I did what I did in the hurdles.”

East’s Jahniya Bowers won the championship in the 200 in 25.55 and placed second along with Allen and Laniya Lewis and Kyndia Matlock in the 400 relay.

Bowers was second and Matlock was third in the 100 dash and the team of Johnae Coleman, Jasime Davis, Antanasia Crockett and Iyana Dixon were second in the 800 relay.

Other event winners included Caitlyn Marx of Salem (discus, 144-05), David Stewart of Harding (shot discus, 141-11) and Izzy Kline of Newton Falls (shot put, 41-01.5). Howland’s Vincent Mauri won the 3,200 in 9:28.3.

Among the runners-up were Justin Clark of Liberty (110 hurdles in 15.46 and the 300 hurdles in 41.38), Kayron Adams of Harding (100, 11.14), Dezmond Harvey of Harding (400, 51.97), Rocco Almasy of Poland (200, 23.02), Haley Rozeski of Salem (1,600, 5:24.82) and a number of relay teams.

In the field events, Libby Barreca of Newton Falls was second in the discus, Kyle Jornigan of Cardinal Mooney placed second in both the shot and discus, Abbie Antram of Salem was second in the shot put and Seth Stokes of Lisbon was second in the high jump.

Twinsburg (103) won the girls team title. East (66.5) was second, followed by Salem (64) and Poland (53).

Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy (84 points) won the boys title. Salem (51.5) was second, followed by Hudson (42) and Warren Harding (41).