The Berkshire Badgers track and field program hosted its inaugural Berkshire Invitational on April 19.
Game photos click here.
The Berkshire Badgers track and field program hosted its inaugural Berkshire Invitational on April 19.
In addition to the home teams, six more schools also participated: Andrews Osborne, Cardinal, Conneaut, Edgewood, Fairview and Fairport Harding.
Badger boys finished third, and the Badgers girls finished fourth.
Highlights for the Badgers included senior Owen Zaumeyer winning the boys 1600-meter run and Kirsten Shaffer winning the girls high jump.
The boys 1600 event was extremely close throughout. In fact, it came down to the sprint to the finish, in which Zaumeyer edged out his opponent by .08 seconds.
Zaumeyer ran a 4:44.68, while his opponent from Fairview, who finished second, recorded a time of 4:44.76.
After the race, Zaumeyer, a Lake Erie College commit for both cross country and track and field, said he didn’t expect anyone at the meet to give him competition. However, just before the race, the runner-up from Fairview told Zaumeyer that his seed time was similar.
This highlight motivated Zaumeyer.
“I’m like, ‘I can’t let this guy beat me,’ ” Zaumeyer said. “It was our first home meet. I really wanted to win this one.”
In the girls high jump, Shaffer said this being the first home meet motivated her, too.
However, she emphasized that her focus for the meet was not on winning, but rather on competing and doing her best.
Cardinal’s boys team finished fourth, while Cardinal girls team finished fifth.
Cardinal highlights included Max Soltis winning the shot put by 10 feet past the second place finisher from Edgewood, plus winning the discus with a throw of 122-11.
After the shot put event, Soltis talked about how he performed and how he mentally and physically prepares to compete.
From a physical perspective, he jumps around and gets his arms loosened up before he throws.
Mentally, he described how he focuses his thoughts once he enters the throwing area: “Once I get in that ring, it’s just light-outs — like everything goes quiet — and I am ready to roll, for sure.”
Soltis said the start of his season has been going very well.
“Today was my best day for shot put, and discus has been very good as well. I’m pretty happy with both performances,” he said. “Definitely to get to states is one of my big goals for either one.”
The Cardinal boys team also won three running events with athletes Ethan Bosh and Sam Gdovichin.
Bosh won an extremely close 100-meter race in a time of 11.97; the second-place finisher finished in 11.98.
In the 200-meter, Bosh also won with a time of 24.64.
Gdovichin won the 3200m with a time of 10:45.47.
For the girls team, Cardinal’s Lily Ayer won the 800m with a time of 2:28.22; and Carly Ayer, Eve Kaminski, Ivy Kaminski and Lily Ayer also won the 4×400-meterm relay with a time of 4:21.63.
