by Steve Batko
Correspondent
Placing fourth overall with 60 points at the 28th annual Austintown Fitch Optimist Invitational May 3 could give the Twinsburg boys track and field team some momentum going into the first ever Northeast Ohio Conference Championships.
The NOC Meet is set for May 15 and 17 at the comforts of Twinsburg Tiger Stadium.
Wadsworth won the 28-team meet with 98 points and Copley (80) and Canton GlenOak (72.5) finished second and third, respectively.
Stuart Edmonds broke the school record again in the 3,200-meter race with a time of 9 minutes, 23.41 seconds.
He beat Copley's Chris Fallon (9:25.06) and Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy's Kyle Sullinger (9:28). He also came back to place seventh in the 1,600 (4:35.61).
Chris Kelly placed fifth in the 1,600 with a clocking of 4:32.97 and led off the third-place 3,200 relay (8:17.04), where he was joined by Sean Reynolds, Josh Edmonds and Nate Tarach.
The hurdling tandem of Waquiem Comar and Dion Johnson scored key points with a third and fourth-place, respectively in the 300 hurdles. Waquiem Comar had a time of 41.19 and Dion Johnson, 41.27.
The Tigers' 1,600 and 800 relays placed fourth. The 800 team consisted of Shawn Rall, Jalil Bishop, Shawn Barker and Dominic Allen.
The Tigers' 400 relay also ran a solid race with a time of 45.14 behind Allen, Brent Hunter, Johnson and Mike Maier.
Dominic Surace and Kevin Miller also scored well. Surace placed fifth overall in both throws.
His shot toss went 49 feet, 3.75 inches and he reached 138-2 in the discus. Miller placed eighth in both events with tosses of 47-6 and 132-7, respectively.
Barker ran seventh in the 400 (53.18) and Nate Tarach placed sixth in the 800 race with a clocking of 2:02.25.
The team of Barker, Bishop, Tarach and Rall placed seventh in the 1600 relay with a time of 3:40.7. Junior Tyler Glover was 12th in the long jump.
The Tigers improved to 4-0 in the NOC River Division, thanks to an 85-52 victory over Nordonia on April 30 in Macedonia.
"That was a big league win over neighboring Nordonia and we had some sweeps in the meet," said Martin.
Distance group
overwhelms Knights
At Nordonia, the Tigers were led by a distance sweep as Stuart Edmonds won the 1,600 (4:35.3) and the 3,200 run (9:55.1).
Joining Stuart Edmonds in the 1,600 sweep was Kelly (4:44.8) and Tarach (4:48.1). Joining Stuart Edmonds in the 3,200 was Matt Sutter (10:20.9) and Ryan Smith (10:21.6).
Tarach was victorious in the 800 run with a time of 2:04.1 as the Tigers had another sweep. He was followed by Kelly (2:05.2) and Reynolds (2:05.9).
Reynolds also was joined by Mike Malec, Geoff Dipre and Josh Edmonds on the winning 3,200 relay (8:47.9).
"Our throwers had another great meet, led by [junior] Kevin Miller," said Martin.
Miller had victories in the shot put (45-3 ) and in the discus (141-1). Surace was second in the shot put (44-5) and was third in the discus (135-6).
Martin's young sprinters also scored well. The sprint crew was led by Rall, who won the 400 (51.27) and anchored the winning 800 and 1,600 relays.
Joining Rall on the 800 cast (1:31.2) were Allen and Bishop and Eric Cooper. The 1,600 relay (3:35) had Barker, Bishop, Comar and Tarach.
Allen and Cooper placed second (11.3) and third (11.5) in the 100 and in the 200, Rall and Bishop ran second and third with times of 22.48 and 23.54, respectively. The 400 relay team won in 46.94 seconds. This group consisted of Cooper, Mike Maier, Evan Hunter and Allen.
Angelo Baskerville finished third overall in the pole vault.
Sophomore Dion Johnson and Comar placed second and third, respectively, in the 300 intermediate hurdles. Comar also ran second in the 110 high hurdles with a clocking of 16.73.
Others scoring for the Tigers were freshman Aaron Macer in the high jump (5-8) and Rall in the long jump.
Twinsburg was scheduled to host River Division rival Cuyahoga Falls May 7. Results were not available at press time.
The Tigers are set to compete at the Jackson Invitational May 9 at 4:30 p.m.
The NOC Championship is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. May 15.
E-mail: stowsports@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-686-3914