Lake boys capture district title

Mentor girls also win team crown

The Lake Catholic boys have the team title picture process down pat.

Organize in two rows, take a serious picture, then silly — and call it a night.

May 19 at the Division I Mayfield District, an inconvenience like driving rain for the back third of the meet wasn’t a deterrant.

The Cougars know exactly what to do to get to the picture they want.

Lake rolled to the team title with four event wins on Day 2 and 110 points. Connor Duricky swept 110- and 300-meter hurdles and ran a leg on the Cougars’ firstplace 4x400, and Jacob Keating captured 1,600.

“Yeah, it was really big,” Duricky said. “It was our

No. 1 goal to win, and it really tops off my senior year.”

Duricky swept hurdles at Mayfield for the second straight year. In 110s, the Cincinnati signee recorded a time of 14.16 seconds, a .24 drop from last spring at district.

The 300s was more of a dogfight as Euclid’s Adam White and Brush’s Quentin Woodall made things interesting in the last 50. But Duricky showed poise coming home, particularly with his power over his final hurdle, en route to a 39.50.

“Yeah, 110s was good,” Duricky said. “If I had a better start, I would have had high-13s. And then 300s, I was kind of just trying to qualify and save energy for the 200 (in which he took third).

“(Bringing home a 300 hurdles win with poise) is really just conditioning. At the end when I saw (White), I kicked it into another gear, which I had in me.”

As the rain intensified late in the meet, Chardon’s Nate Kawalec put in an impressive 3,200 win with a 9:22.88.

In a field featuring Keating and Mentor’s Matthew Bull, both winners earlier in the day in mile and 800 respectively, Kawalec set the tone with his first 1,200, jumping out to a 40-meter lead.

“I really wanted to put the pressure on, have them come with me and push ourselves together,” said Kawalec, who joined his brother Ty (2011) as D-I 3,200 champions from this district.

“I felt confident. I just tried to push myself, and I did my best. It’s cool (to win a 3,200 title like my brother), but I want to win one more next year and try to beat him out.”

On the girls side, Mentor held off Chardon, 140-121, for the team title. The Cardinals punctuated it with a first in 4x4 with, given the weather conditions, a miraculous 4:00.85.

Emma Lane also repeated in 400 with a 55.71, showing her trademark power from 200 to 300 to make the rest of that final a formality.

“(The 4x4) felt really good,” Lane said. “When we started, we were like, ‘Go for time. Go for time.’ Because we know when it comes to regional, we need to run a good time. So we were really concerned about everyone just trying to run their best in the weather, and I was happy to see the outcome.

“I know I wanted to try to get out hard (in 400) and just kind of see how the rest of the race went, knowing I’ve kind of been running 58s and 56 last week. It was good to get into the 55s.”

No area squad at district had a more varying day than the Euclid girls. Panthers standout junior Caisja Chandler swept 100 (12.18) and 200 (24.94), but what sandwiched it was heartbreaking from a Euclid point of view. The Panthers’ outstanding 4x1 and 4x2, which likely would have been state podium-caliber in two weeks, had dropped batons and did not finish.

Under those circumstances, Chandler showed a great deal of character to bounce back and take 200 with an encouraging time.

“I talked to her, obviously after the mishaps in 4x2 and 4x1,” Euclid coach Larry Nosse said. “She was a little bit upset last week at the (GCC) meet about getting beat in the 100, and she came back and ran a fantastic time in the 200.

“I told her the same thing today — just get out as hard as you can, and let’s go. Show you can still run a great time in this weather — it’s raining, it’s crappy, it’s cold right now. For her to come back and run a 24.94, that’s awesome. It shows that she’s obviously one of the strongest in the state in that event.”

Other area individualevent district champions crowned May 19 at Mayfield were Brush’s Jasmyn Allen (100 hurdles), Mentor’s Anna Evans (1,600) and Sam Meyer (800), Chardon’s Jon McKnight (400), Deanna Ogrinc (300 hurdles), Denali Selent (3,200) and Lily Baker (pole vault), Euclid’s Isiah Claytor (high jump), Lake’s Silvija Taraska (discus) and Mayfield’s Dominique Miller (long jump).