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Bears golden at Poland
East High School runners dominated Poland Track and Field Classic
By BOB ETTINGER
POLAND
Tobias Hayes was feeling good as he readied himself for the Poland Invitational Track and Field Classic on Saturday. As the East junior was winding down at the end of his day, he felt even better.
“I knew today was going to be my day,” Hayes said. “Like I said earlier — confidence is the key.”
Hayes earned the Iron Bulldog in accumulating the most points in the boys meet as well as the running MVP.
“Going into an event, I’ll be jittery,” Hayes said. “I’ve just got to remember I love this sport and I’ve got it. I just take a deep breath, meditate and get the feel of the track. Then I just go for it.”
Hayes won the 110-meter hurdles in 15.04, was second in the 200-meter dash and helped the Golden Bears to third in the 400- and 800-meter relays.
“I’m getting batter better each meet,” Hayes said. “My time is getting lower and lower. What led to my win was I wasn’t nervous at all. In the preliminaries, I was already second and I knew when I got in the finals, it would be a win.”
DeShante Allen took home the Iron Bulldog on the girls’ side of the competition and teammate Jahniya Bowers was the running co-MVP to lead East to the team championship.
“Last week was my first time winning something like this,” Allen said. “Being the second in a rowo, I’m proud of myself.”
Allen won the 100-meter hurdles in 15.44, the long jump in 16-8 and was a part of the winning 400-meter relay with Bowers, Kyndia Matlock and Iyana Dixon.
“It was freezing today,” Allen said. “It’s always the bad meets, the bad days (I run this well). I didn’t even stretch. I have speed. My coach is always telling me I have speed. I need to work on my technique a little.”
Bowers won the 100- and 200-meter dashes in 12.23 and 25.5, respectively, while running a leg in the 400 relay.
The Golden Bears netted 79 points to top Poland’s 71.5. Salem tied Chardon for third with 62, McDonald was sixth with 41 and Badger placed seventh with 40. Other local teams included Howland 11th, 18 points), Newton Falls (13th, 14.50, Crestview (14th, 14), Canfield (16th, 9), Niles McKinley (17th, 8) and Warren G. Harding (20th, 1).
“We just ran as a team,” East coach Kevin Cylar said. “We had people absent and we had people who had to fill in. We showed a lot of depth and a commitment to the team. We had girls filling in, running multiple events, running events they don’t usually run and in different orders in the relays. We had to reach deep. The ladies accepted the challenge.”
Miranda Stanhope of Badger had wins in the 3,200- (11:23.30) and 1,600-meter runs to take a shre in the running MVP.
“I was trying to hold back just a little bt in the first half of the race (in the 1,600),” Stanhope said. “My strategy was to pretty much just keep picking people off. I thought there’d be more of a fight with my legs being tired from the 3,200, but I felt pretty good so I went with it.”
Zach Gray’s took the MVP in the field events as McDonald finished as the runner-up in the boys’ event. The Blue Devils tallied 70 points. Crestview was third with 55.33 and Salem netted 54 points to tale fifh. The remainder of the local teams in the field included East (6th, 45), Badger (7th, 42.50), Warren G Harding (8th, 39), Struthers 11th, 23, Howland (13th, 16), Poland (18th, 9), Chaney (19th, 6), Canfield (20th, 3) and Lowellville (21st, 2.5).
“Poland is a meet I always tell the boys they have to have certain qualifying times before I consider bringing them here,” McDonald coach Lou Domitrovich said. “This meet has been a standard of excellence through the years. We put up some good times. Zach did really well in the throws. We just have some depth. We have depth with the older kids and with the younger kids. It’s a culture. It’s certainly a culture.”
Gray won the discus with a throw of 162-9 and was second in the shot put with a heave of 51-00.5.
“I just wanted to go out and do my best and whatever happened, happened.” Gray said. “I think I could’ve done better, but I don’t think I did terrible.”
Caitlin Marx of Salem was the field events MVP with wins in the discus (133-02) and shot put (40-11.5).
“Usually my teammate (Abbie Antram, 2nd in both shot put and discus) and I share,” Marx said. “It helps a lot to have somebody around my talent level to push me. I’m pretty happy. I wasn’t expecting to it today.”
Aiden Hall of Struthers took home wins in the 100- and 200-meter dashes in 11.07 and 22.43.