Mahoning County track champs

By BOB ETTINGER

sports@vindy.com

AUSTINTOWN

DeShante Allen can find herself competing in any number of events at a given track meet. At times, the East senior might enter an event she hasn’t even tried in a good while all under the guise it will help the team.

Somebody knew exactly what they were doing at the Mahoning County Track and Field Championships at Greenwood Falcon Stadium on Saturday. Allen and Mitchel Dunham of Boardman were named the Rob Ruan Award winners.

Allen won the 100-meter hurdles and the long jump while helping the 800-meter relay team that included Iyana Dixon, Laniya Lewis and Kyndia Matlock to victory. She was also third in the 300-meter hurdles.

“It means a whole lot,” Allen said. “People say I’m the most athletic on the team so they throw me into so many different events. I guess somebody picked the perfect four events today. I haven’t run the 300 in a long time, like last year long time.”

Dunham was victorious in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs and aided the 3,200-meter relay team of Jonah Bacho, Frank Bero and Alan Cuevas in crossing the line first.

“I just came in trying to win both races, trying to score points for my team” Dunham said. “I was just trying to stay comfortable in the relay and not use any unnecessary energy and still win the race. I felt good in the 3,200.”

The Austintown Fitch boys netted 167 points to win their 10th straight county championship.

“This is the only early season meet we put a lot of emphasis in,” Fitch coach Seth Steiner said. “We take pride in being the county champs. We haven’t been healthy, but we’re gradually starting to put things together.”

The remainder of the field included Boardman (138), East (73.5), Chaney (69), West Branch (60), Poland (40), Canfield (33), Struthers (28) and Cardinal Mooney (24.5).

The Falcons’ girls team won for the eighth time in nine tries in totaling 160.5 points.

“We knew Boardman would be tough,” Fitch coach Bobby Lape said. “They have a lot of good girls. It was different this year from last year. Last year, we relied on two or three girls. This year, it was a team effort. It was closer than we thought it would be.”

The Spartans were second with 153 and Poland was third with 107. The remainder of the field included East (80), Canfield (59.5), West Branch (37), Struthers (17), Chaney (10) and Mooney (10).

Madison Skelly broke a meet record for the Falcons with a leap of 10-6 in the pole vault.

The previous mark of 10-4 was set by Boardman’s Ashlee Frazzini in 2009.

Deondre McKeever paced the Fitch boys, winning both the long jump and high, clearing 19-5.75 and 6-2, respectively.

Raegan Burkey of Boardman won the 400-meter dash in 1:00.96 and the 800-meter run in 2:27.47 while Kaylin Burkey was the winner in the high jump (4-10) and the 300-meter hurdles.

Jahniya Bowers took titles in the 100- and 200-meter dashes in 12.28 and 25.17, respectively.