Avon Lake Boys, Girls Track Teams Win Own Invitational

It's always good to win your own invitational. It's even better to defend your team title.

Both the Avon Lake boys and girls track squad's did exactly that at the 15th annual Avon Lake Track and Field Invitational. It was the Shoremen’s seventh win at their home invite and the Shoregals’ fourth.

The Shoregals had 138.50 points on the day, and were paced by six first-place finishes. West Shore Conference powerhouse Rocky River finished in second with 110 points.

Katie Link defended her 1,600 meter title with a (5:22.65) besting Rocky River's Maddy McDonough by six seconds. She also was part of two winning relay teams including the Shoregals 4x400 meter relay (Link, Kailey McLain, Anne Coyne, and Taylor Nedrich).

Christine Bohan defended her title in the high jump (5-2) by two inches over North's Jocelyn Sefick while Morgan Srail had a 9-foot-6 in the pole vault. Bohan was also second in the pole vault with her 9-0.

Kristen Winkel had a nice meet taking home first in the long jump (16.3) along with  three thirds in the 110 hurdles and 300 hurdles and also as part of the 4x200 meter relay. (Winkel, Kailey McClain, Clair Jones and Erin Mielcusny)     

Jessica Lambert  third in the 3200 meter run with her 13:14 as was Taylor Nedrich  in the 400 meter run (1:04.3).            

The Avon Lake's boys team road to victory was significantly different than the girls path, and it was paved by its numbers (73 athletes out for the team), as just two Shoremen recorded firsts in the meet.

Still, the Shoremen were able to best Lorain by 43 points (140)  who finished in second with 97 points.

The Shoremen were led by junior Jake Young who won the shot with a throw of 51-feet, 1.75-inches and brought back memories of Mike D'Andrea, who still holds the meet record with a toss of 64-06 in 2002.

Matt Marron also had a memorable meet, running a nice early season 4:39.68 in the 1600-meter relay to take home first place.

Brett Bass was second in the 100- and 200-meter dashes in 11.72 and 24.05. Peter Lancione also scored two seconds;  in the 110- and 300-meter hurdles with times of 15.29 and 39.71.

Bass and Lancione were also  part of the second place 800 meter relay team ( Zach Johnson, Alex Grunick) with their 1:35.58.

Mike Parsons also took home second in the 3,200 (9:59.14) and senior Francesco Maiorca was second in the 800 (2:04.59).

The Avon Lake 4x800 relay team of Nick Nix, Ryan Till, Michael Callesen and Francesco Maiorca was third with a time of  8:42.43 as was Nick Bossard had two third place finishes in the 300 IM hurdles (40.71) and also the 100 high hurdles( 15.86). He was also part of the third place 4x400 relay squad (Mike Karpinski, Grunick, Lancione).