With district meets looming large in the week ahead, the Chagrin Valley Conference hosted conference track and field championship meets last week.
With district meets looming large in the week ahead, the Chagrin Valley Conference hosted conference track and field championship meets last week.
The Berkshire boys team won its first CVC title since 2015, with the girls finishing tied for second, their best finish in a decade, to round up the Valley Division meet.
Chagrin Falls and West Geauga competed in the Chagrin Division meet, with the Wolverines girls team taking second to become the highest finisher between the two schools.
For the Badgers, it was an intense three-team battle most of the night. At one point, they were as low as third and down by 20 points. But they battled, and when the dust settled, they had claimed the CVC.
“It was fantastic competition,” Berkshire Head Coach Brian Wadsworth said. “Every one of our guys showed up and got points when we needed them. It was a total team effort. We even had some young freshmen step up and help us place in the relays.”
This achievement had been a goal for Berkshire since Coach Wadsworth returned to the program three years ago, and these seniors have longed for this moment and came into the week ready to go.
“This whole week, I was so nervous because I had never felt this kind of pressure before,” said senior Brady Wadsworth. “I knew everyone was counting on me, especially in the 4×400 relay. We needed a good finish, so I just put everything else aside and just focused on doing my best for myself and the team so we could bring home the CVC title.”
The running events also had some help from another senior, Billy Verbic, who competed and won an individual CVC title in high jump.
“It feels nice to give my team some big points. It’s my first year ever doing this,” Verbic said. “I knew I could jump, so I came out to one practice to try it out and I did good. Now I’m here today helping this team go far.”
Not only did the boys team impress, the girls team did great, as well, tying with Rootstown for second place behind CVC champ Crestwood.
“We had some girls do things that they hadn’t done all year, and it was fantastic to see,” Coach Wadsworth said. “The girls put it together for us and got their best CVC finish since 2017.”
Two remarkable team finishes should provide great momentum heading into the district meet.
“We’re excited about our chances, but we have a really tough district meet,” the coach said. “We’re going to give it our best shot, and we’re going to arrange the relays and distance events so that we can get our best chances of moving forward. The kids are excited and they’re super happy its on our home turf, which is great.”
For the Chagrin Falls team, then, the girls won the 4×800 meter relay and the boys cut 20 seconds off their time, as well, also breeding momentum for their respective district meet.
“I’m hoping we can drop time in the 4×400 and get that advanced to regionals,” Chagrin Falls Head Coach Ken McClintock said. “That, and the 4×800 as well. If we run well, we’ll be moving on.
“Right now we’re just really concentrating on our strengths and making sure we get as much advanced to regionals as possible. Natalie Zalud placed top eight in the state last year for pole vault, and right now we’re just working on getting her back to form from injury.”
Given how talented the district pools are for the Tigers, it felt important to ensure that everyone started hitting their stride at the CVC meet and planned to carry it through the postseason.
“It was a huge week for us,” Coach McClintock said. :We had a bunch of people record personal-bests for us, and for that to happen when the weather wasn’t great was a ton of fun to see. This is the best time to be PRing, so hopefully we can do the same thing this week.”
Finally, West Geauga’s boys won the 4×800 meter relay, and ultimately placed fifth out of six teams at the end of the CVC meet.
The girls took second behind Beachwood, which won its fourth-consecutive girls CVC track and field title.
Senior high jumper Kara Deister scored huge early points by winning the high jump title, and plans to use that momentum as she eyes a strong postseason run.
“It’s great to have this momentum going into the postseason meets, especially going onto college athletics,” she said. “It’s a great motivator, especially this early on in the postseason, to help me keep working toward districts, regionals and states.”
