What the Crestwood Red Devils girls’ track and field team lacked in depth, they have always made up for in quality and that rang true as the Red Devil girls snagged the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division III Perry district banner with a team score of 93.5 points last weekend at Alumni Stadium in Lake County
“To win the district with essentially eight scorers and that was actually almost everybody who participated scored in some fashion or another,” said Co-Coach Jim Schweickert. “I don’t think any of them were thinking about winning the district going into it.”
Crestwood’s female athletes will compete for state berths in the OHSAA Division III Austintown regional meet at Austintown-Fitch High School Youngstown, beginning on Wednesday afternoon at 4:30 p.m.
“I always consider it the toughest one in the State,” the first-year Co-Coach Schweickert said. “At least depth-wise, I would say that there are good teams around the state but now we have to go back to facing Woodridge, CVCA, Bay and Marlington. Northeast Ohio is loaded and most kids that get out of our region wind up on the podium at the state meet.
At the district meet, the top four athletes in each event earns a regional berth to Austintown. With only eight athletes competing for the Red Devils, Crestwood still won three races and placed in 14 out of 17 events, netting 11 regional bids.
According to Co-Coach Megan Mertz, being a small team, this year has helped establish a team culture for each of the Crestwood athletes.
“I feel that this group of girls is the definition of a team,” the first-year Co-Coach added. “They all pull their own weight, and they all compete where we need them, and they ended up pulling it off.”
Junior Liv Martini paced Crestwood by winning all three sprint events, capturing first place in the 100-meter dash with a personal record of 12.45 seconds; winning the 200-meter dash by clocking 26.35 seconds and wrapping up first place in the 400-meter dash, with a time of 1:00.76.
“I think she is going to have her work cut out for her for the regional meet, but she was amazing on Saturday,” Mertz noted. “She was ready to go, she was excited, she was nervous, but she pulled everything out and she is a big part of this season.
Junior Jackie Blasiole had strong performances in the hurdling events, taking fifth place in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 16.95 seconds and captured a regional berth in the 300-meter hurdles by taking 4th place in 52.64 seconds, followed by junior Emily Doering who earned fifth place with a time of 54.59 seconds.
Blasiole also clinched a regional berth in the long jump, finishing in 3rd place with a distance of 16 feet, 6 inches.
Junior Maddie Grace Gonczy earned third place in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:30.57.
Junior Piper Seibold snagged fourth place in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:32.60.
Junior Piper Freedline netted fourth place in the 3200-meter run at 12:45.6, followed by freshman Abby Pfost who took sixth place with a time of 13:14.72.
“Piper Freedline has been consistent all year,” noted Schweickert. “She does what she does. She always goes out and is incredibly consistent and she has been within five seconds of her time in virtually every race this year.”
Senior Madison Sheridan earned fourth place in the discus throw, hurling a distance of 100 feet, 9 inches and also placed sixth in the shot put throwing 31 feet, 2 inches.
The quartet of Blasiole, Gonczy, Doering and Seibold finished as the runners-up in the 4×400 relay with a time of 4:29.35.
“Saturday was our best 4×400 race of the year,” said Schweickert. “The 400-meter times were probably a solid two seconds slower than what you could run just because of the head wind. Two of the girls ran times that were close to their season-bests, they really hammered it. They stepped up and finished second to help win the meet, so it was a solid relay.”
The foursome of Sebiold, Pfost, Freedline and Gonczy placed second in the 4×800 relay by clocking 10:31.97.
Freshman Piper Overfield came in seventh place in the high jump, clearing the bar at 4 feet, 4 inches.
