Saturday morning, however, in preparing to orchestrate the Hilltopper Invitational track meet with eight schools involved, Chardon Athletic Director Doug Snyder had some reservations about a powerful storm system coming through the area overnight and into the early morning hours.
Meet photos click here.
The Chardon and Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin athletic teams have had loads of success in competitions.
Saturday morning, however, in preparing to orchestrate the Hilltopper Invitational track meet with eight schools involved, Chardon Athletic Director Doug Snyder had some reservations about a powerful storm system coming through the area overnight and into the early morning hours.
He persevered, though, delayed the proceedings for a couple of hours to observe the skies, and finally got things going around 11 a.m.
“I’m just glad the rains have held off,” he said in the early afternoon of April 22 as he moved all over the Memorial Field complex to keep the meet moving along.
Things dried out during the day to provide some great competition among the eight schools, and it was Stow-Munroe Falls that dominated the fields.
That boys team won with 147.5 point. The host Hilltoppers also saw some great efforts, including one meet record, to score 134. Geneva’s Eagles placed third with 96, Mayfield tallied 60, Lake Catholic scored 54, Garrettsville Garfield had 53, and Perry’s Pirates scored 52.5.
Dealing with the weather and great youth on their roster,t he NDCL Lions still tallied 40 points.
For the girls, Stow-Munroe Falls also was the roadrunner among the teams with 181 points. Mayfield had 91, the host Hilltoppers scored 87, Geneva had 80, NDCL had 70, Garfield had 54, Lake Catholic had 48, and Perry finished last with 36 points.
Chardon’s junior class sparkled in this meet, though the weather kept sparkle from the equation most of the day.
Karl Dietz was the workhorse for the Hilltoppers. He set a new meet record in the 400 meter dash with a time of 48.37 seconds. He also took second place in the 100 meter dash with a time of 11.38, as well as the 200 with a time of 22.99, and he ran a leg on the 4×400 team late in the day.
Dietz said he appreciated getting the meet in, and the effort of all who were there.
“I wasn’t overly concerned about the conditions for myself,” he said as he dressed after the 400 event. “I put on warm clothes this morning to be ready and keep myself comfortable. In setting the record in the 400, I just tried to go out at a fast pace to see how things would go with the other guys, and then in the last 200 I pushed myself harder to finish as fast as I could.”
His planning worked well.
Junior Thomas Nelson was a double winner for the Hilltoppers, taking both distance events. He ran a 4:33.26 in the 1600, and his 3200 time was 9:55.03.
Chardon’s girls 4×400 team took second place, as did its 4×800 team. The boys 4×800 team also was runner-up.
Matt Sopchak took the 800 meter run with a time of 1:58.60.
In rain-limited events, Toby Rogers, a freshman, took second with a vault of 8-0 in the pole vault.
Junior Rae Kawalec had a good day for the girls. She had a winning effort in the 800 with a 2:24.98 time, as well as a runner-up spot in the 1600 with a time of 5:23.04, and aims for a state trip in the coming weeks.
Jacob Nieset was third in the boys 3200, Abigail Whitehead was second in the girls pole vault, and sophomore Caleb Hewitt had a good day, placing third in the 200 meter dash and fifth in the 100. Junior Makoto Gumpf was third in the 1600, senior Colin Snider was fifth, and senior Liam Ptasznik took fifth in the 110 hurdles and third in the 300 hurdles.
The Lions didn’t have a loaded team to put on the field this meet, but there were positives that coaches Ralph White and Ross Martin, for the boys and girls respectively, could see as their athletes battled their youth and the weather.
“I’ve been a track coach for a long time,” White said. “The NDCL folks asked me to help out, and while we’re very young and inexperienced in most areas, working with these kids has been a load of fun. We’re getting better, too, as we go along.”
Martin agreed.
“We don’t have a lot of depth this year, or experience, but the kids are working hard to do their best all the time. That’s all we can ask of them.”
It was a good day for the Matheny family. Junior Colm was a workhorse. He placed second in the 110 hurdles with a time of 16.81, took second in the 300 hurdles with a 41.84 effort, ran a 51.42 for third in the 400 meter dash, and battled with early competitors in the discus.
Senior Finn Matheny took third in the 400 and sixth in the 200 meter dash as well.
For the girls, sophomore Emma Clayton finished fourth in the long jump and fifth in the 800 meter run. She appreciated what it took to be able to compete in tough conditions.
“For me, the key to doing well is to keep moving around,” she said. “If you do that, by warming up more, I think I will be OK.”
Mia Gaspar, another promising sophomore for Coach Martin, had a good day with a second-place finish in the long jump (15-9) and a third-place finish in the 200 with a time of 27.51.
As one of the first contestants to get going as the rains let up late morning, NDCL’s Megan Palinski took second place in the shot put with a toss of 31-08.50.
