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Boardman junior Mitchel Dunham became the 17th fastest Spartan cross country runner in Boardman High School history after racing to a fourth place finish in a time of 16:20 to lead Boardman to a sixth place finish on Sept. 8 at Wooster.
Dunham was closely followed by sophomore Frank Bero in a career best time of 16:42-just 5 seconds from an All-Time Top 25 in BHS history spot. Bero was ninth out of 336 runners. Also scoring for the Spartan varsity was junior River Flatley in a new career best time of 17:43, which placed the Spartan 34th, sophomore Anthony Marshall in 45th in a career best time of 18:02 and sophomore Justin Maloney in 50th with a career best time of 18:06. The Spartans improve their 2018 record to 41-16.
“We had a great day,” said Boardman Head Coach John Phillips. “Twenty-two out of our 27 runners earned a new career best time today in race conditions that were not that great.”
The Spartans finished behind two state-ranked teams, Hudson, which is currently first, and Worthington, ranked twentieth. Also finishing ahead of the Spartans were perennial powerhouses Wooster, Copley and Wadsworth.
“If you want to be good you have to run against good teams-that is our philosophy,” Phillips said. “We travel every Saturday to compete against the very best that Ohio has to offer.”
The Spartan junior varsity team improved its season record to 36-13 after placing fourth overall on Sept. 8. The junior varsity team was led by sophomore Beau Gorby in a career best time of 18:44, junior Jackson Lipka at 18:54, freshman Ben Alvarico in a new career best of 19:03, senior Cameron Maloney in a new personal best of 19:06 and junior Steven Moradian at 19:11.
Setting new personal bests at Wooster were Dunham, Bero, Flatley, Marshall, Justin Maloney, Gorby, Alvarico, Cameron Maloney, senior Payton Torres at 19:29, junior Zander Schobel at 20:02, sophomore Jason Lagese at 19:22, sophomore Johnny Gabriele at 19:58, sophomore Michael Halchuck at 19:47, freshman Jake Blazina at 23:31, freshman Dan Chiaberta at 22:03, freshman Aiden Chunn at 23:12, freshman Josh Cubarrubia at 24:13, freshman Trey DePietro at 19:29, freshman Jack Graff at 19:49 and freshman Noah Shurrel at 22:53.