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Bombers ring up title at Bell Invitational
(by Tony Lange - May 09, 2012)
Bombers ring up title at Bell Invitational
By TONY LANGE
May is a month for champions, and the Kenston boys track team turned its calendar with a victory last Friday, easily winning the Bell Invitational at Rocky River.
One-two-three finishes, school records and meet records propelled Kenston to 227 points, which bested runner-up Normandy's 129 points and the rest of the eight-team field.
With eight individual-event winners, the Bombers ran great as a team, head coach Chris Ickes said.
"In all, everybody just ran really hard and ran great times on Friday, and we have better times still coming," he said. "No Kenston runner won two individual events, and it was a balanced effort in that matter. But, obviously, those guys heated it up on some relays to win more first places."
Kenston won three of the four relays, including the four-by-100-meter relay, the four-by-400 relay and the four-by-800 relay.
The Bombers finished as runner-up by 0.22 second in the four-by-200 relay with a school-record performance of 1:31.25. Michael Weilacher, Lenny Stanley, Andrew Soltay and Darryl Richards teamed for that effort. Their time bested a 1981 mark of 1:31.6 set by Shaun Walker, D. Toddy, Greg Randall and Ken Harris.
Before the turn of the century, however, not many four-by-200 relays were run by boys teams, as it was not a dual-meet event for much of the 1980s and '90s. The Ohio High School Athletic Association did not add girls pole vault until 2002, and the boys competition had eliminated the four-by-200 relay for gender equality.
Kenston's same four-by-200 team last Friday also teamed for a triumphant four-by-100 relay, which ran a 43.61 to break the meet record. That time is fourth on Kenston's all-time records.
"Those four guys are great," Ickes said. "They work on exchanges so much, and they're obviously very talented."
Richards and Weilacher also went one-two in the 100 and 200 dashes.
Weilacher won the 100 in 11.10 seconds, and Richards was runner-up at 11.23 seconds. In the 200, Richards won in 22.58 seconds, and Weilacher was runner-up at 22.94 seconds.
While those two guys were top candidates for most valuable performer of the meet, that honor was taken by Owen Norley, who won the 1,600, was runner-up in the 800 and was a member of the winning four-by-400 and four-by-800 relays.
In the 1,600, Norley ran a 4:28.75, which beat teammates Luke Porter, 4:31.49, and J.T. Ward, 4:35.66, who took second and third.
Kenston also took one-two-three in the 800 with Sean Slaughter winning in 2:00.68, followed by Norley, 2:02.3, and Porter, 2:07.01.
Slaughter also had the fastest split on Kenston's meet-record-setting four-by-800 team, which included Norley, Porter and Ward. They clocked an 8:06.27, which is the sixth fastest time in school history.
Slaughter is one of the best 800 runners in the area, Ickes said.
"He's improved so much. He started off as a 200 runner as a freshman," Ickes said. "He's slowly improved his endurance. We spent all April having him run 1,600-meter runs just to get him used to running the long distance, and I think we're going to see a lot more improvement from him in the 800, because he now has an increased endurance, so he's going to finish a lot better."
In the field events, Mario Manacci and Adam Dawson went one-three in the discus and one-two in shot put.
Manacci threw the disc 141 feet, 9 inches, while Dawson threw it 133 feet, 10 inches.
Dawson threw the shot put 45 feet, 7 inches, while Manacci threw it 44 feet, 4 3/4 inches.
"They're constantly pushing each other," Ickes said. "On Saturday before prom, they went in and lifted weights together, and they're just constantly making sure each one is accountable and pushing each other to different heights."
In the long jump, Stanley won with a mark of 19 feet, 4 1/2 inches.
"He puts a lot in on all our relays, so he's always running the four-by-100, a four-by-200 or a four-by-400, and he's just as talented as other guys in individual events, but we need him all over the place," Ickes said. "So he takes an unsung role, and it feels great to see him have some individual success in the long jump."
Jason Cordiak won the 110 high hurdles in 15.14 seconds, which is seventh on Kenston's all-time list.
"We think he's going to have a great month of May," Ickes said. "For Jason to break 15 would be incredible. We thought, coming into this season, he would be happy with a 15.3 or 15.4, and he's already exceeded that, so we'll see what else he can do with the rest of the season."
Kenston's final victory of the day came in the four-by-400 relay, when Slaughter, Nick Plewacki, Porter and Norley ran a 3:28.86.
Plewacki also was runner-up in the 300 intermediate hurdles with a time of 42.14.
Up next, the Bombers are gearing for the postseason, starting with their 16-team Division I Fitch District meet scheduled for May 16 and 18 at Austintown Fitch's Falcon Stadium.
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