Teams make most of bad weather

Down came the rain, and it washed out the track and field.

Brookside tried its hardest to get in this year’s Brookside Invitational, and although eight running events and two field events were completed, the expected rain appeared and ended the meet after the boys 300 hurdles.

It didn’t take long for the rain to come in. The sky got dark quickly, and it was announced that the 300 hurdles would be the last event. Firelands’ Aiden Bokulich won the event as the rain began to fall, and it wasn’t long after that it started to pour.

Earlier in the day, Brookside athletic director Chris Adkins made the decision to move the running events up 90 minutes to a 3:30 p.m. start instead of 5 p.m. originally. Because of the crossover between athletes running and participating in field events, the long jump, high jump and pole vault were canceled beforehand.

The forecast wasn’t looking good all week, and it was inevitable that the meet was going to be affected. Despite this, 16 teams came to

Brookside to compete for almost three hours and made the most of it.

“At least we got something out of it,” Brookside coach Brad Barhorst said. “I’m happy we got as much in as we did, because the alternative was not getting anything in and all of the schools not getting to do anything. I’m glad we finished here on a positive note with some our guys in the 300 hurdles.”

Even though the 800, 200, 3200 and 4×400 relay, along with the boys shot put and girls discus didn’t get in, the decision was made to still give out trophies to the winning teams. When it was all said and done, the Firelands girls and Keystone boys came out victorious.

Firelands won with a score of 64 points, with Brookside in second with 52 and Vermilion in third with 41. Keystone won the boys with a total of 77 points, North Ridgeville was runner-up with 51 and Vermilion was third with 46.

Despite the meet ending early, there were still plenty of noteworthy performances. For the second time this season, North Olmsted’s Collin Willard knocked off Keystone’s Ryne Shackelford in the 100 dash. It was so close, they had to go to thousandths of a second to determine the winner. Willard’s time of 10.991 seconds edge Shackelford’s 10.997, and his strong season continued.

“This is probably my third meet of the year that’s a good, fast one, and it’s been pretty good all year,” Willard said. “I just focus every day like it’s a regular dual meet, just stay calm and collected. The last 20 meters, I was able to push through.”

Willard and Jared Kelley (third place in the 100) also led North Olmsted to a win in the 4×100 relay with a time of 44.71 seconds, knocking off Keystone once again.

The Wildcats got their only win of the day in the 4×200 relay with the team of Emory Fedor, Logan Nagle, Zach Shackelford and Alex Nagle. North Ridgeville’s team of Tayo McLaughlin, Jackson Gift, Gustavo Imbacuan and Lincoln Bouman won the Rangers’ only event of the day in the 4×800 relay.

Avon’s Nyquese Ortiz won the 110 hurdles with a time of 16.28 seconds, and Oberlin’s Evan Hudson won the 400 at 51.37. In the only scored field event, Vermilion’s Hayden Valenti won the discus with a toss of 149-3.

For the winning Firelands

girls, Ariannah Floyd had a huge day in hurdles. The sophomore set the meet record in the 100 hurdles with a time of 16.18 seconds. Floyd was shocked that she now has the meet record, she said. In the 300 hurdles, she beat out Brookside’s Avery Davis with a time of 48.01.

“It feels pretty good knowing that I have competition to push myself harder and work hard,” Floyd said. “I knew I had to push myself because I had Avery Davis, which she’s really good at 300 hurdles also.”

Despite not being able to long jump or run the 200, Zuriah Radeff-Koonce won both the 100 dash and shot put. The junior ran a time of 12.87 seconds in the 100, and threw 37-1.5 in shot put. Her teammate Madison Palmer won the 1600 with a time of 5:43.11.

Oberlin had a strong performance from its 4×200 team of Olivia Hudson, Aubrey Abeyta, Alyssa Webb and Phoebe Shuck with a winning time of 1:52.82. Hudson followed that up with an individual win in the 400 at 1:00.49.

North Ridgeville’s Kailey Schulz, Payton Palcisko, Yamila Scott and Elizabeth Schiffbauer were the winners of the 4×100.