I am proud to say that we had a very successful District Championship.  As in every sporting event there will be some disappointments, but overall the positives far outweighed any negatives.

Discus (B)

• Ryan Smiddy (Sr) threw 151-3, just off his lifetime best of 152-3, to finish 3rd and advance to the Regional Championship.

• Jesse Decipeda (Fr) threw 112-02, just off his lifetime best of 113-1.  He was only one of two freshmen to throw in the event and he finished 13th out of the 28 throwers.

Discus (G)

• Mackenzie Morrison (Fr) threw a PR of 101-10 for 6th place

• Katherine Giza (Fr) threw 95-0, a bit behind her PR of 111-4 but still very respectable for a freshman

Long Jump (B)

• John Mullaly (So) jumped 19-5.5, a lifetime best by more than 7 inches, to finish 11 of 21.

• Max Leichty (Jr) jumped 19-5, missing his best of 20-0.5, but it was his first series with all of his jumps longer than 19 feet.  He ended up 12th of 21.

Long Jump (G)

• Ellie Gray (So) jumped a PR of 14-6 to finish 13th of 20.

• Brooke Kinkopf (Jr) jumped a PR of 14-4 to finish 14th.

Shot Put (G)

• Dani McCartney (Jr) had her 2nd best throw of the year (34-1) to finish 8th of 24.

• Mackenzie Morrison (Fr) threw her lifetime best by 0.25” to finish 19th and was the 2nd best freshmen.

Shot Put (B)

• Ryan Smiddy struggled a bit in Shot Put throwing 40-3.25 to finish 16th of 26.

• Jesse Decipeda, the only freshman in the event, threw 33-7.5, missing his PR by just a bit more than an inch.

Pole Vault (B)

• Max Koluder (So) tied his PR of 10-0 that he set the week before at the WRC Championship and did so without missing a bar.

• John Mullaly (So) struggled a bit but did make it over 9-0.

Pole Vault (G)

• Emily Phillips (Sr) was the District Champion with a vault of 11-0 and had several good attempts at the District record.

• Lauren Phillips (So) set a new PR of 10-0 and finished 4th to also qualify on to the Regional Championship.

High Jump (G)

• Ellie Gray (So) tied her PR of 4-8 to finish 8th of 19.

• Loganne Foster (So) jumped her PR (4-8) to end up in a tie for 9th.

High Jump (B)

• Yusuke Kinoshita had several valiant attempts but the starting height of 5-8 was a bit much for a first year jumper with a best of 5-0.

4x800 (G)

The girls dropped a bomb on the field by running 9:28.49, a season best by 22+ seconds that makes them the 2nd fastest qualifier going into the Regional Championship at Austintown Fitch this next week.  Brianna Nieset opened up with a 2:20.0. Andrea Mann ran 2:23.7. Maria Peters ran 2:25.8. Denali Selent anchored with a 2:18.9. All were PRs!

4x800 (B)

The boys went into the race with the 5th fastest seed and were missing Anthony Zampino, our top finisher in the 800 at the WRC Championship (3rd place) due to severe shin splints.  The team didn’t let any of this get to them. They all opened with the same 400m split (59.5) and all ran PRs - Kawalec 1:58.6, Keeney 2:03.7, Stropkay 2:05.6, and Knez 2:02.4 - to finish with a season best 8:10.36 in 3rd place and advance to the Regional Championship.  They are the 7th fastest qualifier and know they can still drop quite a bit of time.

100 (G)

• Emma Guyett (10) narrowly missed her PR by 0.10 to run 13.60

• Jenna Oriani (9) false started.

100 (B)

• James Pettyjohn (9) was our lone entry in the 100m.  He finished in 11.72, just a bit behind his PR of 11.56 to finish 18th of 25.  He was the fastest freshman in the field.

100H (G)

• Chloe Budd (So) ran a PR of 17.11 to finish 9th of 18 in prelims, just missing finals.

• Madi Rosipko (Fr) ran a PR of 17.82 to finish 16th.

110H (B)

• Jake Ryan (Fr) ran a PR of 17.80 to finish 15th of 19

• John Mullaly (So) ran 18.54, well behind his best of 17.70.

4x200 (G)

The girls ran a bit behind their best this season, but they were also without Oriani on anchor.  They finished 11th in the prelims and did not qualify to finals.

4x200 (B)

The guys were also without their best anchor, Jon McKnight, but managed to finish 7th in the prelims and again in finals.

1600 (G)

In one of the most tactical girls 1600s that I have witnessed at districts, the leaders came through halfway in 2:48 and then pounded the 2nd half.  Denali Selent finished the 2nd half of the race in 2:28 to win with a lifetime PR of 5:16.56. Andrea Mann (Fr) hung tough over the last two laps to finish in 6th with an 8 sec PR of 5:24.04

1600 (B)

• Aidan Macaskill (So) executed his race plan well and was rewarded with a 3 sec PR and a 6th place finish out of 23.  Youth ruled the day as 7 of the top 8 finishers will return next year.

• Kyle Stropkay (Sr) finished within a second of his PR to end up 11th.

4x100 (G)

Similar to the 4x200, the girls finished about 1 second behind their season best, but did so without their best anchor, Jenna Oriani.  They ended up 9th.

4x100 (B)

The boys were just 0.23 seconds behind their season best, but were without Spencer Stiffler.  They ended up 11th in a very competitive field.

400 (G)

• Thea Sauer ran 1:03.38, a PR by more than 2 seconds - a huge margin in the 400.  She ended up 9th in the prelims and just missed making finals.

• Maria Peters (Jr) 1:04.46, her best time this season to finish 10th.

400 (B)

• After holding Jon McKnight (Jr) out of the WRC Championship due to a hamstring strain, we were concerned about how it would hold up at the District meet.  In the prelims, it looked like he was taking it easy and still managed to run 50.29, the fast prelim time. It was also only 0.01 sec than the school record he set last year.  In the finals he blasted the field as he ran 49.43 to destroy the school record of 49.86 he set at the Hilltopper Invitational this spring. He goes into the Regional Championship with the fastest seed time.

• Connor Morris (Sr) went into the prelim race with expectations to make finals and possibly qualify to regionals.  We’re not sure why but he struggled to run one of his slowest times of the season and didn’t make finals.

300 Hurdles (G)

We threw our two freshmen, Abby Frania and Madi Rosipko, into the district meet and both ended up very near their PRs.  Jumping into a District Championship as a freshman can be very intimidating, but both performed admirably.

300 Hurdles (B)

• Jon Adams (Jr) ran a season best of 42.59 to finished 7th overall.  It was just a bit behind his PR of 42.04 set in the 2017 WRC Championship.

• Myles Mendeszoon (Fr) ran a PR of 44.37

800 (G)

• Denali Selent (Jr) doubled back after he 1600m win to run a conservative 800 and finish 2nd to qualify to Regionals in her 3rd event.

• Brianna Nieset (Fr) wisely stuck with Denali to finish a very close 3rd to also qualify to Regionals.

800 (B)

• Brad Knez (Sr) has come a long way since he started indoors with me as a 7th grader.  He was hoping to get under 2:00, but still ran 2:01.43, an open 800m PR by more than 3 seconds, to finish 6th.  He will have at least one more shot to go sub 2:00 when he runs in the Regional 4x800m Championship.

• Brian Horton (Jr) had a stress reaction/fracture this winter and had to take ~10 weeks off from training.  We weren’t sure if he would be able to return to racing before the end of the season and if he did, we weren’t sure if he could earn a spot in championship races.  Desire and hard work enabled him to do both. He qualified to finals and ran a respectable 13th in 2:07.83, his season best and only a tick or so away from his lifetime PR set last year.

200 (G)

• After the disappointing false start in the 100, Jenna Oriani (Fr) had her best performance of the year in the 200 running 25.88 to finish 3rd and qualify on to the Regional Championship.

• Dani McCartney (Jr) didn’t have the day she was hoping for in the 200.  She ran 29.06, well off her PR of 27.70 (She did run 27.4 with a strong tailwind at the Madison dual).

200 (B)

James Pettyjohn was our only entrant in the 200m after we pulled Jacob Gaspar to run the 4x400.  James’ time of 24.00 was a bit behind his best of 23.72, but he was only one place behind the best freshman in the field.

3200 (G)

• Molly Greene (Jr) ran 12:18.67, a season best by 5 seconds to finish 9th of 18

• Lilli Livengood (Fr) ran 12:50.91, a PR by 6 seconds to finish 12th

3200 (B)

• Nate Kawalec (Sr) has won every individual race he has entered this spring and too often has run nearly the entire distance by himself.  To prepare for the Regional Championship we decided to have him run with the pack the first mile and then run the 2nd mile at goal pace. Running in the middle of the pack in a distance race involves a lot of bumping, cutting your stride, etc. which can be distracting/aggravating.  Having a bit of a reminder of what that is like was worth having a slower winning time. After the pack hit the mile in 5:09, Nate rocketed to a 65 second 5th lap and continued on to run the 2nd mile in 4:40 for the win and to move on to the Regional Championship.

• Tucker Keeney (So) ran 10:22.32 to finish 9th while battling plantar fasciitis.  It was only 3 seconds from his PR but wasn’t near as fast as he had been hoping for.

4x400 (G)

The girls had a thrilling finish to what had been an outstanding District meet.  Brianna Neiset (Ff), Maria Peters (Jr), Denali Selent (Jr), and Jenna Oriani (Fr) all hammered their leg in the 4x400 to finish 4th and run 4:06.83, a season best by 5 seconds.  All four were at or under their PRs.  This also meant that Denali qualified to the Regional Championship in 4 events!

4x400 (B)

The boys had managed to qualify for finals without Jon McKnight, but they were hoping he could join them for the finals and qualify on to Regionals.  Unfortunately, Jon still had a twinge in his hamstring during the open 400 so we decided not to press things. We pulled Jacob Gaspar from the 200 to give him the best chance we could of running a great leg and he responded with his best ever split (53.4) by almost a full second.  He handed off to Andrew Kobuszewski (Jr) who has been one of our most consistent 4x400 runners all season and did not disappoint with a 51.8 split. He handed off to Nate Kawalec who was coming directly out of the 3200m race and managed a PR split of 52.4. At that point, we were in the mix to qualify out but Connor Morris, who had struggled so badly during prelims, was going to be up against several the best anchors in the district.  He did not disappoint He bombed past the other anchors to run a 50.3 split, a huge PR and secured our spot in the Regional Championship with a 4th place finish. The time was 3:28.16, a season best by 1.5 seconds and was done without McKnight - an incredibly impressive performance.