Geauga County track and field teams from Chagrin Falls, NDCL and West Geauga participated in the 81st Dale Kramer Relays held April 28 at Orange High School.
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Geauga County track and field teams from Chagrin Falls, NDCL and West Geauga participated in the 81st Dale Kramer Relays held April 28 at Orange High School.
NDCL boys won the team competition, and NDCL girls won multiple relay events, throughout the meet.
“We didn’t enter a lot of events because we got the conference meet on Wednesday,” said NDCL Head Coach Ralph White, a former NCAA Division I track coach at George Mason and Clemson. “We just had a good day. Some of the kids who normally have not done a lot, they kind of excelled today, and consequently we finished a lot higher in a lot of places.
“A lot of highlights. The distance people really stepped up. Brian Bates, who has been out for quite some time, looked really good today; all of our distance runners did.
“And then Finn has gone to another level. Last year he was just one of the guys, and then this year he’s our star. Jevon King did another great job. (Our throwers) came through and got third place in the shot. They threw PR’s. We were happy.”
Bates, a senior Ohio State Track and Field commit and an OHSAA Division II state Champion in the 800m, truly helped the NDCL boys win the meet. He was part of the first place 4 x 800m relay team which also included Peter Bates, Sean Butler and Anthony Ciecierski.
After the meet, the 4 x 800m boys relay team talked about its victory.
“For the race, it was honestly pretty tough, but Brian gave us a great lead going into that first leg,” Ciecierski said. “Also, going into it we had a really positive mindset, so I think that’s why we did really good.”
Added Brian Bates: “This week we just wanted to get better with the mental side. We know it’s a big part of running. We just kept telling each other all week ‘we’re feeling good.’ We just had a fun race.”
Throughout the day, the NDCL boys also won the boys 800m sprint medley and finished second in the 4 x 400m relay and the 4000m distance medley.
Meanwhile, the NDCL girls team won the 4 x 200m relay (Marissa Brock, Elizabeth Henrickson, Mia Trusso, Mia Gaspar), the 4 x 400m relay (Brock, Emma Clayton, Gaspar, Henrickson) and the long jump relay (Clayton, Gaspar, Madeline Martin).
“We are so excited that we took the win here at Orange today,” Hendrickson said. “We were able to get the lead and keep it, and it was awesome.”
“It was a wonderful race,” Gaspar said. “We all ran really well.”
“We’re hoping to make it really far with our 4 x 4 (this season),” Brock added. “We were able to qualify for states in indoors, and we’re hoping to make it really far with this race.”
Another exciting performance in the Dale Kramer Relays came in the form of West Geauga’s first-place finish in the distance medley (Grant Congdon, Matthew Dienes, Daniel Kearns, Christopher Whiting). Not only was the team victorious, but it set a new school record time by running a 10:39.78 in the event.
Taylor Deets (girls 1600m) and Maggie Furst (girls discus) also won their events for the Wolverines.
Chagrin Falls’ Tigers also won the girls 4 x 1600m relay (Anna Baker, Leah Kler, Elizabeth Partain, MacKenzie Verderber).
