For the second consecutive season, the Crestwood Red Devils girls’ track and field team opened their season with a statement by capturing the team championship at Cardinal’s 6th annual William E. Fisher Invitational, scoring 117.0 points last Friday evening in Middlefield.
“I think we had 11 girls. For them to come out and compete in multiple events, some that they are not used to doing or comfortable with doing, and to pull off a win like that in the first race of the season, it was very impressive,” said Co-Coach Megan Mertz.
While the Red Devils were small in numbers, they still had elite athletes who won six events, and recorded top four placements in 13 of them.
“We know some of those front-end girls are going to score well and we are going to need that. We have other girls that are going to score along the way,” noted Co-Coach Jim Schweickert. “Some younger kids that will get better.”
On Friday, the Crestwood girls sat in second place entering the 3200-meter run but overtook Portage County and Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division foe Rootstown as junior Piper Freedline finished as the runner-up with a time of 13:11.91, followed by freshman Abby Pfost, who took third place by clocking 13:31.38.
The Red Devils sealed their second straight William E. Fisher championship when the 4×400 relay team consisting of juniors Piper Seibold, Maddie Gracy Gonczy, Liv Martini and Jackie Blasiole captured first place with a time of 4:20.52.
“We made a last-second change in the 4×400 relay, and some people ran an extra event as needed and everybody stepped up and performed really well for the first meet of the year, so it was a great start,” said the first-year Co-Coach Schweickert.
Martini dominated in the sprints, winning the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.58 seconds, capturing first place in the 200-meter dash by clocking 25.81 seconds and won the 400-meter dash with a time of 59.76 seconds.
“We were trying to keep the kids from running four events this first meet to start but she stepped up, she is a different breed,” said the first-year Co-Coach Mertz. “She is so exciting to watch, she is built for the track.
Gonczy earned second place in the 800-meter run by recording a time of 2:29.24.
Seibold placed second in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:38.99.
Blasiole netted fourth place in the 100-meter hurdles, clocking a time of 17.81 seconds, and finished as the runner-p in the 300-meter hurdles at 51.30 seconds.
The quartet of senior Lorena Dehoff, junior Emily Doering, sophomore Mia Divis, and freshman Elissa Terry snagged sixth place in the 4×200 relay, clocking a time of 2:02.39.
Seibold, Gonczy, Freedline and Pfost teamed up to win the 4×800 relay with a time of 10:39.52.
Senior Madison Sheridan secured first place in the discus throw, hurling a distance of 110 feet, 5 inches and also netted fourth place in the shot put, with a distance of 33 feet, 9¾ inches.
Blasiole took third place in the long jump at 15 feet, 6½ inches.
Following a road dual meet against Rootstown on Tuesday, the Red Devils will host the 6th annual Don Faix Invitational at Jack Lambert Stadium in Mantua on Saturday morning at 9 a.m.
On the boys’ side, the Garfield G-Men boys’ track team followed up on a runner-up finish at the William E. Fisher Invitational last year, winning the team title by scoring 105.0 points last Friday.
“We love going to that meet,” said Coach Jim Pfleger. “It is nice seeing some of the local competition and a lot of those schools are the same size as us and we will see them down the road at the district meet and the postseason, so it is always a good measuring stick there.”
The team ultimately pulled ahead of Berkshire in the team standings by winning the final race, the 4×400 relay, as senior Hunter Anderson, juniors Oliver Walker, Will Simon and Emery Simones won it with a time of 3:44.19.
“It was good,” noted the experienced coach. “We have some depth there. It showed because we had a couple of kids out of town that could be on that team in the postseason, so it was great.”
Simon captured first place in the 400-meter dash by clocking a time of 53.49 seconds, followed by Walker who took second place with a time of 53.53 seconds.
“They go back-and-forth a little bit and are competitive both at practices and meets so it was fitting for those two to battle it out there and then come back in the 4×400 and bring it home,” said Pfleger.
Junior Abe Wohlever won the 800-meter run with a time of 2:09.43.
Senior Derek Blunk placed fifth in the 1600-meter run, clocking 5:05.33.
Senior Dakota Stanley took seventh place in the 3200-meter run with a time of 11:59.51, followed by senior Jayden Bartlett who finished in eighth place by clocking 12:06.86.
Senior Colin McGranahan earned third place in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 17.56 seconds, followed by sophomore Colton Warnick, who netted eighth place at 20.45 seconds.
Simones secured third place in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 45.95 seconds.
The quartet of senior Devin Bates, Anderson, Walker and Simon won the 4×200 relay with a time of 1:36.25.
Senior Derik Stanley, Dakota, Blunk and Wohlever won the 4×800 relay by clocking 8:58.26
Sophomore Ryder Cain netted second place in shot put by hurling a distance of 47 feet, 9½ inches, followed by sophomore Jack Timmons who placed third by recording a distance of 47 feet, 3 inches.
“I was happy with both of those guys being sophomores hitting over 47 feet this early in the season and they are on a heavy load right now,” said Pfleger. “We are not getting tuned up for big throws until the end of the season. We have plenty of stuff to clean up, but I think we are in a good spot.”
Timmons finished as the runner-up in the discus throw, recording 134 feet, 8 inches.
McGranahan took fifth place in the high jump by clearing the bar at 5 feet, 8 inches and placed eighth in the long jump with a distance of 18 feet, 10¾ inches.
In the seated events, senior Connor Hunt won all three, taking first place in the 100-meter dash with a time of 16:04, the 400-meter dash by clocking 57:16 and the 800-meter dash at 2:05.47.
The G-Men will return to the track for the Don Faix Invitational at Jack Lambert Stadium in Mantua on Saturday morning at 9 a.m.
