Howland’s Mauri rockets late to dominate 3,200
By Dan Hiner
dhiner@vindy.com
Austintown
Howland distance runner Vincent Mauri found another gear in the final lap of the 3,200-meter run. That extra burst on Friday gave the Arizona State signee a Divsion I regional title win.
Mauri finished with a time of 9:03.63. University School’s Justin Iler came in second with a 9:14.83 and Canfield’s Giovanni Copploe was third with a 9:16.38.
“With no one there, mentally, it wasn’t hard but I didn’t know how fast I was going at the time,” Mauri said. “I just kinda tied up with maybe 200 [meters] to go.
“I’m really happy with how it turned out.”
Mauri set a personal best with his time. He said breaking nine minutes “would have meant a lot” but he was more focused on qualifying. Mauri said the time was a confidence boost heading into the state meet.
Mauri finished second in the 3,200 at state last season. Mauri came in two seconds behind Pickerington Central’s Matt Scrape. Copploe came in 11th last year.
“It great to see that I’m getting even better than last year — seven seconds better than my time at regionals last year,” Mauri said. “It’s really a big factor now.”
Copploe said the first lap went a little faster than he expected. He tried to stay with Mauri and Iler, but decided to stay back and focus on qualifying.
“I kinda just got off on my own, kinda had to fight it there for a few laps,” Copploe said. “But the goal out there and race and qualify. At the end of the day, I did get the job done and I’m on my way to state.”
Copploe admits he’s more prepared for state than he was last year.
“I have more experience than last year and I’ll be ready for the competition unlike last year,” Copploe said. “I kinda struggled with that race at first. I’ll be ready this year though.”
Warren Harding’s JeSean Sledge came inches away from winning the boys 300 hurdles. Sledge led most of the race, but clipped the final hurdle before regaining his balance and crossing the finish line.
Sledge came in second with a time of 38.36 seconds. Canton McKinley’s Clayton Tabler crossed 0.05 seconds ahead of Sledge.
“Next week’s gonna be a different game,” Sledge said. “Coming in with a better mindset than I had today to finish a clean race.”
Howland’s William Hines came in third in the 100. Hines ran a 11.24, finishing 0.04 seconds ahead of Massillon’s Tyree Broyles.
Junior Madison Skelly won the girls pole vault for Austintown Fitch. Skelly cleared 11-04, besting Nordonia’s Grace Coghill, Aurora’s Corinne Henderson and Wooster’s Cassidy Brown by four inches.
Niles sophomore Chante Clinkscale finished third in the girls 100 with a time of 12.26 to punch her ticket to Columbus.
The Austintown Fitch girls 4x100 relay team of Hallie Renda, Logan Franckowski, Jenna Rodgers and Alena Williams finished third to round out the female qualifiers.
The state meet will be held on Friday and June 1 at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium at Ohio State University.