Correspondent photo / Lowell Spencer. Springfield's Ava Vecchione competes on Saturday at the Mahoning County Championships.

AUSTINTOWN — Springfield senior runner Ava Vecchione enjoyed a clean sweep at the Mahoning County Track and Field Championships on Saturday.

The annual event at Austintown Fitch hosted 19 Mahoning County schools, including 10 Division II schools like Springfield.

Vecchione won all four events that she participated in, including the 100m dash, 200m dash, 100m hurdles and the 300m hurdles. What made the wins more satisfying for Vecchione were the tough conditions, as the brisk, windy weather made it harder for all the participating athletes.

“It definitely adds on to your time,” Vecchione said. “It’s tough to run your best time, especially when it’s cold and the wind is blowing. But everyone on my team was able to run some good times and place pretty high.”

Vecchione and her Springfield teammates placed second in the Division II team standings behind South Range. The Raiders won the meet with a total score of 143, while the Tigers were second with 139. Lowellville placed third with 74 points. The Tigers scored highest in the sprint events at the meet.

“We have a good number of girls in every event with our relays and some good 800m runners, so we have girls all across the board,” Vecchione said. “It’s a pretty balanced team so we should be able to place pretty high.”

Vecchione started the day with the 100mr hurdles, winning with a time of 17.25. She then followed it up with a time of 13.02 in the 100m dash. She held off Tigers teammate Emma Sanders, who finished with a 13.28 mark.

“That race, since it is pretty short, I just had to focus a lot on the start,” Vecchione said about the 100m dash. “I have worked a lot on my block starts, which really helped.”

She followed those two events by capturing the 300m hurdles with a time of 50.63, a full three seconds ahead of the next finisher. Finally, she capped the day off by sneaking past Sanders again in the 200m dash with a time of 27.03. Sanders finished in 27.58 seconds.

Vecchione is a four-year track athlete, who also plays basketball and soccer for the Tigers.

“It was definitely a quick turnaround from basketball to track,” Vecchione said. “You’re moving in all the sports, so it isn’t like you’re starting from standing still. Running in basketball and running in track are definitely two different things, but I feel I have figured it out over the past few years.”

As far as the remainder of this season, Vecchione hopes to continue to improve and capture more top track honors, as she looks to again return to the state meet in June.

“Last year, I made it to state in four events, so that is the goal again to return there and place on the podium,” she said. “Just to make it there and place is the goal.”

Have an interesting story? Contact the Sports Department, at sports@tribtoday.com. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, @TribChronSports.