Staff photo/Neel Madhavan. Boardman senior Ben Alvarico (center) wins the boys D1 100-meter dash during Saturday’s Mahoning County Championships at Austintown Fitch High School. Boardman’s Logan Thompson took fifth (far left), Canfield’s Danny Inglis (far right) finished fourth and Fitch’s Donnie Ellis and Jayden Eley took second and third, respectively.

AUSTINTOWN — Track and field season has been in full swing in the Mahoning Valley for about a month now, but for the first time this season Saturday, athletes competed in weather normally conducive to the spring sports season.

Temperatures in the 70s and clear, sunny skies “rained” down on Austintown-Fitch High School for the running of the 107th annual Mahoning County Track and Field Championships, with the host school cleaning up in the Division I events.

“It was our first meet with decent weather all year,” said Fitch boys coach Seth Steiner. “This is always one of our early season goals to try to win the county title and repeat as champions. I was really excited about a lot of the performances, but it was definitely a nice little wake up call for some events that we didn’t do so well in that we need to address and get better in heading into the end of the season.”

The Falcons took home both the boys and girls team titles with the boys totaling 186.50 points and the girls tallying 187 points. Boardman took the runner up spot for both the girls and boys, while West Branch placed third for the girls and Canfield took third for the boys.

“(Field events) set the tone early, and then from there on, sprints, hurdles, jumps, relays — everybody in every event group was chipping in. Obviously, Savannah Jones winning (Division I) meet MVP, scoring 32.5 points or something like that was awesome. And I think we had Kristin Yeager, who might’ve been the girl that had the second most points for Division I, too. So a lot of great things across the board for all groups.”

In Division II, Springfield claimed the girls team title with 135.50 points, while South Range ran away with the boys team title, amassing 161.50 points. The South Range girls finished as runners up in Division II, while Lowellville compiled a third-place finish. For the boys, Lowellville finished second, as Springfield rounded out third place.

Fitch’s Savannah Jones was named the girls MVP of the meet for Division I after winning the 100 hurdles, the long jump, being the anchor of the winning 4×100 relay team and coming in second in the 300 hurdles.

Staff photo/Neel Madhavan. Fitch’s Savannah Jones wins the 100m hurdles Saturday. West Branch’s Alexis Gregory finished 2nd, while Boardman’s Gia Triveri took third.

Meanwhile, Boardman’s Ben Alvarico earned MVP honors for the Division I boys, since he won the 100 , the 200, the 400 and was the third leg for Boardman’s winning 4×200 relay team.

Continuing to write the final chapter on his decorated high school athletic career, Springfield’s Beau Brungard was named the boys MVP for Division II. He won the 110 hurdles, the 300 hurdles, the 200 and was the anchor on the Tigers’ winning 4×200 relay team.

Wrapping up the individual honors, Lowellville’s Sophia Yon won girls MVP for Division II after winning most of the distance events, including the 3200, the 1600, the 800 and was the anchor for the Rockets’ winning 4×800 relay team.

Decades-old records fall in 800

Staff photo/Neel Madhavan. Canfield’s Nick Plant runs during the 1600m event Saturday.

Lowellville sophomore Sophia Yon has had her sights set on the record in the 800 since she was in seventh grade.

She broke former Jackson-Milton runner Patty Metzler’s middle school county record then, and wanted to do the same at the high school level.

Metzler’s record of 2:21.20 was set in 1982 — Yon broke it with a time of 2:20.61.

“I had never gotten to run the open 800 before, so I wanted to PR (personal record) that time to get a good time up on Milesplit, and then I wanted to break (Metzler’s) record again,” Yon said.

Also, Canfield’s Nick Plant is no stranger to breaking records. As one of the top 800 runners in the country, Plant has dominated the event, and Saturday’s meet was no different.

Plant shattered the previously 48-year-old record in the 800 by more than six seconds with a time of 1:51.61. The record of 1:57.70 was set by Boardman’s John Cappy in 1974.

“It feels good staying local,” Plant said. “I have fun every time I go out there. I just like to enjoy a race and see what I can do.”

Plant also raced in the 1600 and was the anchor for the Cardinals’ 4×400 relay team, winning both. But there’s something about the 800 that brings out the best in him.

“The 800 is a mix of both physical and mental, and you have to maximize both of those in order to do well,” Plant said. “I feel like, for the most part, I’m doing pretty good at that. It’s the most challenging, most people would say. I think it’s true.”

Alvarico dominates sprinting events

Boardman senior Ben Alvarico has only been running track since last year, but now can consider himself to be the fastest Division I boys sprinter in the county.

In addition to winning four of the sprinting events, including the 100, the 400 and the 4×200 relay, Alvarico broke a 14-year old record in the 200 with a time of 22.04 — besting Youngstown East’s James Allen’s previous record of 22.07. Also, his time in the 100 (10.97) was only 0.07 seconds off from the meet record time set in 1996.

“It means a lot, especially because last year I just did track for fun,” Alvarico said. “But coming into this year, I thought maybe I could do something special.”

It’s not easy juggling multiple events at one meet, which is why Alvarico began preparing his body for Saturday’s meet by hydrating several days in advance. He learned that the hard way.

“You have to be really smart about it, because last weekend I tried doing the exact same (events) and I ended up cramping up, so coming into this week, I had to rehydrate better and stretch out a little more.”

Alvarico said he’s always thought he was fast, but he never knew he was “track fast” until he started competing last year. After getting a taste of things, he put in extra work during the offseason to get to where he’s been running this season.

“I was training for basketball, but I was also training with a guy down in Columbus — Ryan Davis, shout out to him,” Alvarico said. “He’s been giving me exercises — it’s gotten my leg stronger and then my coaches have helped me with my mechanics a little more.”

Springfield girls run away from record, competition

As soon as Springfield’s Graciella Ebert had crossed the finish line, her 4×200 teammate Bella Brown knew what had happened.

Ebert and Brown, along with the rest of their teammates Ava Vecchione and Emma Sanders, had broken the county meet record for the 4×200. The team finished with a time of 1:47.30, besting the previous record held by Ursuline since 2015 by more than two seconds.

“As soon as (Ebert) crossed, I saw the time and I was just ecstatic,” Brown said. “I was so happy. I ran up to her, I gave her a big hug and high-five. It was just the best feeling.”

The team had posted similar times in the event all season, so when they looked up what the record was before the meet, they knew they had a chance.

“I think that was our motivation,” Vecchione said. “We really wanted to beat it, so it felt really good that we did.”

Rivals, but friends, finish neck and neck

Staff photo/Neel Madhavan. Fitch’s Nick Tibolla (second from right) and Boardman’s Trey DePietro (right) cross the finish line neck-and-neck during the 110m hurdles Saturday.

Boardman’s Trey DePietro and Fitch’s Nick Tibolla may be rivals and go to different schools, but off the track, they’re still friends.

The two pushed each other to the limit Saturday, with Tibolla taking first in the Division I 110 hurdles and DePietro right there on his shoulder in the next lane, just 0.37 seconds behind in second place.

“In my head, I just had to snap down over the hurdle quicker and I had to expand myself from him as much as I could to finish the race,” Tibolla said. “I’m just happy that it’s a friend I get to race next to and not a random person.”

DePietro shared the same sentiment as both runners finished with a time ranked top 50 in the state of Ohio, with Tibolla’s coming in the top 25.

“In that race, I knew I had to stay with Nick, and that’s what I tried to do,” DePietro said. “It worked out for me because I ended up PRing, but he ended up beating me out in the end. But, I’m just glad he could pull me along, too. It’s an awesome opportunity to have another local kid who’s faster than me, pushing me all the way.”

nmadhavan@tribtoday.com