It was a great day for local tracksters to get outside and enjoy the weather.
It was a great day to break records at the Hilltopper Invitational, in its 11th year.
The weather has always been an issue this time of the year, but there were some shorts and sandals weather down at Chardon High School’s all-weather track.
Three Geauga County schools — Chardon, West Geauga and Berkshire — participated against some of the area’s best track schools.
The Hilltoppers lost their girls and boys crowns. Geneva was the top girls team, which is an early test of the Premier Athletic Conference crown, and Avon took the boys crown, with Lake Catholic finishing second.
But the individual performances for Geauga County schools were very strong. Here’s a look at some of the day’s highlights.
To see more photos visit http://smu.gs/1j6BIus.
Chardon
Stephanie Ferrante won the 100, 200 and 400 meter dashes easily, claiming new records in the process.
Her 56.77 in the 400 broke her own record from a year ago. Her 24.42 did the same thing in the 200 meter.
There are very big expectations for the senior this season.
“It is,” she said when asked if it was a big year. “It’s exciting.” It was the last time Chardon seniors would run on their home track in competition.
“It is strange,” she said of the feeling. “Honestly, I can’t remember the first time we ran. I can remember being in the 100, and not doing any of the other events. Today I’m doing all of them.”
Ferrante and her coaches are still deciding what events she will focus on during the championship.
“My biggest goal is to win a state title in the 400,” she said. “That’s my biggest goal right now.”
Freshmen like Haley Frank under-stand what Ferrante means to the program. And what their role will be moving forward.
Frank finished sixth in the 100 meter dash with a 13.51.
“It’s nice watching people develop and coaching them the way I was coached when I was younger,” Ferrante said. “They are all super nice, and I think they have a lot of potential.”
Frank felt good during the 100.
“I think we have a really good team this year,” she said. “I think I’d like to get first in the 100 for finals. But I have some real competition.”
Senior Grant Mlack finished second in the 110 meter hurdles and second in the 200 meter dash.
“Since it’s my senior year, it’s pretty much my last shot at competing at the high school level so I want to see how much I can improve myself this year,” Mlack said of this season.
Mlack plans on running at the University of Cincinatti next season as a Bearcat, where he will continue with his intermediary hurdles.
“It’s really cool to be a senior in this situation,” he said. “I didn’t really grasp this being our last home meet concept until just a little bit ago, but it’s a really foreign feeling. I don’t know, I’m gonna miss it.
“We have a really, really good distance team for sure.”
Senior Nick Elswick leads those distance guys. Elswick broke the 3200 meter record with a 9:18.7, which was 13 seconds better than the previous record set in 2005.
Steven Zombory, a junior, won the 1600 meter, or mile. Elswick, Zombory and Adam and Josh Sopchack were members of the distance medley relay that set a new record.
The Chardon 4×800 meter relay, made up of Josh Metzung, Ryan Connolly, Matt Morris and Ian Jordan, finished second.
Rachel Banks and Mikaylie Park finished first and second respectively in the girls 1600 meter run. Park won the 3200 meter run, or two-mile event.
Banks, a sophomore, also won the 800 meter run.
Josh Sopchak won the boys 800 meter run.
West Geauga
Audrey Rabe was competing against herself in the pole vault competition.
Having dispatched her opponent, her sights were now set on the Hilltopper Invitational meet record, which was 10 feet 6 inches set in 2004.
Sailing past that marker, Rabe cleared 11 feet, and though the meet was won, it was time to challenge herself; they raised it again to 11 feet 7 inches.
Talking with her coach, Rabe switched to a stiffer pole and checked in with her dad, who records her jumps with his smartphone.
Jumpers get five minutes between each jump and three tries to clear the bar. “He’s telling me what to do,” she said with a laugh, “trying to relax me.”
Rabe ultimately checked out at 12 feet.
“Actually I wish my step was a little bit more on,” the senior said immediately after the record-breaking jump. “But I’m really happy with how I did today for it being the beginning of the season.”
“I’m really honored and excited,” she said of setting the record. “I just wanted to give it a good try.”
It was a beautiful Saturday for Wolverine runners at Chardon, though this hasn’t been the case for practice.
“We just haven’t had any consistency getting out to practice field-event-wise,” said Mike Taurasi, head coach for the girls since 2002. “Some of our kids have been in long jump once in a week and getting steps the day before the event. It’s been really tough … and then once you do get those kids out, they get excited, they want to go full go, and then we’ve got some injuries because of that.”
Rabe has done a phenomenal job, the coach said, having spent the winter vaulting indoors with the Industrial Vault Club in Orrville.
She placed third in the indoor state meet at Akron in March, won the previous week in Twinsburg, and her best jump indoors before Saturday had been 11 feet 6 inches.
Though she was injured at districts last year, she was a state qualifier two years ago, finishing third at regionals.
“She’s been fully committed,” Taurasi said, “and we expect her to continue on and hope for some big things for her.”
Next year she’ll compete on scholarship at Liberty University, a small Division I school in Virginia.
The West Geauga girls team finished seventh of the 11 competing schools.
Rhianna Guarnera is a senior shot putter from whom Taurasi expects big things.
She also didn’t compete last year, but was a varsity thrower her sophomore year.
“She’s a kid who we’d love to get at a district level and see what happens with that,” Taurasi said.
Guarnera finished third in the discus with a throw of 102 feet 11 inches. In shot she finished fourth with a throw of 30 feet.
“We have a lot of young kids that haven’t competed for us before,” Taurasi said.
Rachel and Hannah Brinning are sister long jumpers, a junior and a freshman.
Rachel was taking her ACT test during the meet, which affected plenty of runners from other schools as well. She typically competes in the 800 and is also a member of the 4×100.
But Hannah, a member of the 4×1 and distance medley, finished 13th in the long jump with 13 feet 16 inches.
The team’s number one hurdler, Lilly Faulk, had a quadricep injury.
Sophomore Brittni Mason finished second in both the 100 meter dash with a time of 12.85 seconds and the 200 meter dash with a time of 26.35 seconds. She’s also a member of the 4×100 relay.
Mason reached state last year.
Freshman Deanna Swinerton is new to the program, “but she’s come on really strong, and she’s our lead distance runner right now,” the coach said. “She’s a nice bright light at the end of the tunnel.”
She finished 10th in the mile with a time of 5:57, and was a member of the 4×8 relay team and girls distance medley.
Team numbers are a little down with various illness and injury, Taurasi said; there are close to 30 athletes.
He added that this year’s goal is part reach state and part “just help these kids learn. They’re a young group, so it’s nice to see their enthusiasm.”
The Wolverines’ boys finished sixth, led by senior Paedyn Gomes, who won the 110 hurdles and set the course record in the preliminaries with a time of 14.53.
He’d gone to state last year in the same contest.
“It felt good,” Gomes said of his preliminary run in the 110 hurdles, still out of breath.
Gomes has decided to switch his stride this season, and he was testing it out that afternoon.
“I was told it would really help cut off time because you’re accelerating more into the second hurdle. It seemed like a good idea.”
Gomes, a member of the 4×200, also won the 300 meter hurdles and set the record in the finals with a time of 39.5.
This year he hopes to go to state in the 300. Though it’s bittersweet to be a senior, Gomes also seemed eager for next year at Yale University.
Senior Josh Ebersbacher finished second in the 100 meter dash with a time of 11.22.
Sophomore Zach Suba finished 10th in the 200 meter dash.
Weather had cancelled the Wolverine Invitational two times in three years, as well as two years before that. “We needed to do something,” Taurasi said. “We’re done with the crazy weather.”
This year’s invitational will be held later in the spring, April 26, instead.
“We just picked a new weekend and said whoever comes, comes,” Taurasi said. “It’s gonna be small this year, but hopefully we can generate some interest for next year, and people who don’t want to travel, hopefully they stay local.”
Berkshire
Numbers are slightly down for Julie Cole and her boys and girls track programs.
The Badgers did not have some runners present because of testing.
Kyle Storm, a junior, finished fourth in the 100 meter dash with a 11.53. His third place finish in the 200 meters was impressive, given the Badgers’ usual gaps in the sprinting events.
The distance crew of Nate Millet, Adam Thompson and Nathan Schultz were all named by Cole as players who expected big seasons.
David Pelletier, a distance runner, is dealing with an injury.
Junior Frank Kaschalk finished seventh in the discus throw and ninth in the shot put.
For the girls, Melissa and Suzanne Koziol are junior middle distance runners. Allison Moss, Breanna Pennypacker and Christin Dornback make up the rest of the 4×100 and 4×400 meter relays.
Moss, who will go to University of Akron to become a nurse, will run all the relays this year, which is fine by her because she likes them.
“I think things are going really well,” said Dornback. “Training-wise, I think our team is doing what we need to be doing.”
Dornback, who will focus on the 800 meter run, is a member of the strong junior class.
“We’re all best friends and we train together,” she said. “So that’s helpful to have a pack to train with.”
Pennypacker is just a freshman, but played varsity volleyball and basketball, so she’s getting used to the limelight.
“I like getting my feet wet, and I’m getting pushed in practice, which is really nice,” she said.
She focuses on sprinting and middle distance.
Throwers Carolyn Mayer and Alexis Johnson are also coming into their own, Cole said.
The Badger girls are the defending CVC Valley champions. But a lack of depth overall in the roster makes it hard to score points.
“We will score well individually,” Cole said. “No question we have some standouts that will dominate, but team-wise it’s going to be a challenge.”
To see more photos from the Invitational visit http://smu.gs/1j6BIus.
