Cardinal's track and field team competed in the 66th Cuyahoga Relays held April 29 at Cuyahoga Heights High School.
Track photos click here.
Cardinal’s track and field team competed in the 66th Cuyahoga Relays held April 29 at Cuyahoga Heights High School.
Leading the way was Anna Layman, who won the girls pole vault competition, and Max Soltis, who won the boys shot put.
“I feel like this year, as my junior year, it’s been a really interesting season,” Layman said, “because I started pole vault my freshman year and I wasn’t able to pole vault my sophomore year.
“Coming back for this junior year, it felt really good to be able to get the school record this year and winning meets. It’s really thanks to my pole vault coach, Lexi. She taught me a lot. She held the record before me, and she taught me pretty much everything I know. Everything that I am doing is because of her.”
Cardinal Head Coach Dakota Ward discussed Soltis’s victory in the shot put at the Cuyahoga Relays.
“Max Soltis, he did pretty good today,” Ward said. “He didn’t get the throws he was really looking for. He is just looking to really rip one finally. So, you know, he wants those big numbers. He wants 50 in shot and 130 or higher in discus.
“He works really hard. He’s the last one at practice every single day, so he deserved it (today’s victory).”
In addition to excellent performances by Layman and Soltis, Ward discussed Cardinal highlights from the relays.
“It’s a fun meet, doing a relay meet like this,” she said. “It’s kind of hard having a smaller team, because we don’t always have all the kids to fill the events. But a lot of our kids stepped up. They went in three or four events for all of them; that really helped out today.
“We had a lot of PR’s today, too, so that’s pretty cool. A couple of our milers ran some fast miles today. (Also) our 400 and 800 runners ran really fast today.”
Indeed, the team’s season has been going very well overall. Both the boys and girls teams won a tri-meet against Berkshire and Grand Valley on April 23.
Three days later, Cardinal Track and Field finished second in a tri-meet with Andrews Osborne and Crestwood and had nine athletes finish in first: Ayer (girls 800m), Audrey Avalon (girls shot put and discus), Bosch (boys 100m), Troy Champlin (boys 300m hurdles), Sam Gdovichin (boys 3200m), Layman (girls pole vault), Angelo Kozelka (boys pole vault), Sinclair (boys 200m) and Soltis (boys shot put).
Earlier in the season, at the Grand Valley Twilight meet on April 14, Cardinal had five athletes finish in first place: Bosch (boys 100m), Ayer (girls 800m), Layman (girls pole vault), Sinclair (boys 200m) and Soltis (boys shot put).
The teams would next compete in a tri-meet May 4, hosting Berkshire and Kirtland.
