The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
River’s Shoaf , Amherst’s King Columbus-bound
Avon’s 4x800 relay and Radcliffe, North Ridgeville’s Geraci, Rocky River’s Rauser also qualify for state
Rocky River junior Michael Shoaf talked before the season about wanting to return to state in the discus and shot put. He’s 1-for-2 so far. Shoaf captured the regional discus title on May 23 at the Division I Amherst regional, throwing 181-feet, 7-inches. Top four placers in each event qualify for the state meet.
A week prior, Shoaf threw 171-1 at the district meet taking second, and made a major step forward.
He landed the number on his sixth attempt — and opened his series throwing 159-feetandgraduallyclimbed.
“I’mstartingtopeak, starting to get my form down and it wasareallygoodday,” Shoaf said. “Iwasdefinitelytryingto hit my PR. My regional championshipmeansalot, reallyexciting. I’m glad to add to the other stuff I’ve done.”
Shoaf will try to make it 2-for-2 as he competes in the shot put on May 25.
Amherst senior Emily King won the regional shot put title with a school record 40-10.5. She landed the number on her second attempt.
“I’m just happy to do it, being apart of the team and having everyone supportme,” King said. “It’s very important and that’s the best thing about this team.
“I didn’t expect to win. Everymeet I justgooutandtryto do the best I can do for myself, team and my coach. Breaking the school record was one of my goals this season. I didn’t thinkIwouldget it, but Ibroke it by half an inch.”
The Avon girls 4x800 re- lay also have talked all season long about getting down to Columbus.
They did that taking third place with a time of 9:15.68, breaking the Lorain County record in the process. They were barely edged out by Brunswick (9:13.91) and Medina (9:14.54).
The quartet of senior Sydnie Firment, junior Evelyn Pelfrey, senior Lexie Firment and junior Jules Frombach got the job done.
“It’s really exciting considering it’s our senior year and we don’t know what’s going to happen in the 4x4, especially with the hot weather and I loved every second of it,” Lexie said.
It was a faster time than what they ran at the state meet last year — a 9:19.62.
“That’s the fastest split I ever ran,” Sydnie said of her 2:16 split. “I think the girls just kept us moving and obviously we’re trying to get to thestatemeet, sotheypushus really, really hard. I think everyonewas a little nervousbecause everyone had the same time range and we were just tryingto stay withBrunswick andkeepMedinainourrange so we could push ourselves.”
The Firments have been the “heart and soul” of Avon’s program according to coach Sam Ulery, and they get to close their careers one last time in style.
“We thought last year was aflukerunninga9:19but this year it provedwithgoodcompetition and a good group overall that anything is possible,” Lexie added.
North Ridgeville senior Isabella Geraci qualified to state in the high jump clearing 5-foot-6 to take second, and Rocky River junior Ava Rauser was behind her at a 5-foot-4. Avon freshman Molly Radcliffe earned a fourth place spot in the shot throwing 37-foot-1.