Correspondent photo / Lowell Spencer Boardman’s Gabby Vennetti hits her stride during one of the distance events at Austintown Fitch’s Optimist Invitational.

AUSTINTOWN — The 42nd annual Optimist Track Meet at Austintown Fitch High School brought 51 Northeast Ohio schools to compete in track and field events on Saturday, with Fitch narrowly topping second-place Green. The Falcons scored 73.50 points to Green’s 71.50.

Although she didn’t take home a top time in the events she ran, Boardman’s sophomore distance runner Gabby Vennetti showed that she is an athlete to watch moving forward.

She placed fourth in the 1600, running a time of 5:24.32. This was after running neck and neck with the top two runners in Sydney Lutz from Green and Kayla Crissman from Minerva in the first two laps of the event. Julia Wheeler passed her late in the race to seize the third-place finish.

“So basically, I took it out fast, and then I waited for those two girls (Lutz and Crissman) in front of me to catch up, and they were faster than me. Then they picked it up and got away from me. I just tried to keep a good distance between them. I usually fall low on my third lap, I get way slower, so I tried to keep in contact more with them. But I fell a little too far behind. But they pulled me along to get a better time,” Vennetti said.

“And then I was staying with that girl (Wheeler) that came up from behind me. Because if she hadn’t sprinted and got me going with her, I wouldn’t have my personal best time,” Vennetti said. “I was happy about it.”

Vennetti followed that performance with an 11th-place finish in the girl’s 800-meter race with a time of 2:33.89, trailing the race winner Sophia Yon from Lowellville with a mark of 2:22.95. She also participated in the Spartans’ 4X400 meter relay, where they finished ninth on the day, running the relay’s third leg.

“I probably should have been out faster,” Vennetti said of the 800. “It’s kind of hard to get faster as the second lap comes, so if I could have been at maybe 71 or something, then it would have been better.”

Vennetti explained how the large field of athletes and schools was a good barometer of how she is doing and how to push herself a little more.

“This helps a lot. You have a bunch of people in front of you and behind you. So, you are all running one to three seconds apart from each other. That can really help you to push along,” she said.

Adding to the large number of standout athletes competing at the event, the weather was warm and sunny — something that area athletes haven’t had to experience so far during the chilly spring.

“It has been rainy or freezing,” Vennetti said. “So, this definitely helped with getting warmed up, your legs aren’t cold at all. You can just go and you are already warm.”

Vennetti is also a member of the Spartans cross country team. And while she enjoys the track season, she prefers cross-country running.

“I had a little faster time this year, but still running mid-twenties,” she said. “So, I didn’t really get that much faster from my freshman year. But I’m hoping I can start to chip that time down to get closer to the high nineteens.”

“I just like the scenery and everything,” she explained. “And you get a lot of time to spend with your team, too. In track, everything is boom, quick. Everything is quick. But it’s still fun to run the events. I like track too.”

As she improves, she has a big goal in mind — one that many other local athletes focus on.

“I really want to make it to state one of these years for track and cross country. I don’t know which event in track, but definitely a distance (event) I want to try to make it. I know it will be hard,” she said.

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