Staff photo / Brian Yauger Garfield’s Colin McGranahan competes during the 110-meter hurdles during Tuesday’s MVAC Gray Tier championship on Tuesday at Champion High School.

Going into Tuesday’s Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference Gray Tier Track and Field Championships, Garfield was out to send a message and maintain their hard-fought standard.

Both the G-Men boys and girls teams took the top spots in Champion. The Garfield boys finished with 147 points, while the girls finished with 183.

Champion (89), Liberty (84), Crestview (76) and Brookfield (58.5) were the remaining teams in the top five among the boys. Southeast (152), Crestview (81), Liberty (63) and Champion (45) round out the top five on the girls’ side.

This marks Garfield’s eighth boys title in a row, and the fifth girls title in a row.

“I hate to say that it’s expected now, because, I don’t want us to feel that way, or people to think that that’s what I think, because it’s not, but it’s just become part of our culture, and we strive for it every year,” G-Men coach Kelliann Fry said. “This is something that we plan to try to do. A lot of teams have really good strengths, on one side of the thing, and we strive to have strength across all genres of track. We want to have a good distance team, good sprinters, good throwers. We want to have it all.”

Garfield’s Abraham Wohlever and Derik Stanley took the top two spots in the 1600-meter run with 4:56.09 and 5:08.05 times, respectively. Both were personal bests.

The G-Men girls swept the throwing events, with senior Riley Grace taking the shot put with a 34-10.50 and senior Elise Edwards finishing with a 113-09.00

“Our throwers scored 36 points today, which is the max that you can score,” Fry said. “It really helps when you have that whole spectrum of everything going.”

Freshman Lina Kaufman had success in the 1600, placing second with a 5:24.63. The G-Men ladies took second in the other distance event, with Abigail Kolar finishing the 3200 with a 13:11.16.

Kaufman was also a part of the 4×800 and 4×400 teams, which placed second and first, respectively.

“She had a very strong performance today, and got us a lot of points,” Fry said of Kaufman.

Conner Hunt finished the seated 800 with a personal best 1:57.79, the 100 with a 16:42.00 and a 55.59 in the 400, another personal best.

“He has put in a tremendous amount of work the past three weeks,” adaptive coach David Ludick said. “We had a real conversation about what we needed to do, focusing on his breathing, his starts, his finishing, his stamina, and it paid off today. I think he beat his standard time by about eight seconds. A huge shave off just with the small improvements we’ve made here and there, so really proud of his effort.”

To cap off the night, Garfield’s 4×400 anchor Will Simom snuck past second place Wyatt Brundage (LaBrae) to earn another victory for the G-Men.

Simon also had a personal best in the 200 despite a third-place finish.

“Obviously, he’s a very smart runner,” Fry said. “He knows exactly what to do. He let that kid pass him, and then waits til the end and then passes him right again at the end. That’s what he’s our anchor for.”

OTHER TOP PERFORMERS

Liberty freshman Jayden Gillam took the 100 with an 11.72-second time. Gillam also took the 200 with a 23.13. Teammate Amar Watson finished close behind with a 23.38.

Liberty took the 200 on the girls’ end as well, with MaryAnn Woods placing with a 27.48. She also won the 400 with a 1:03.29.

Crestview’s Joshua Smith took the gold in the 110 hurdles and 300 hurdles, finishing with a 16.53 and 46.36, respectively.

Champion sophomore Chip Martin took the top spot in the 3200, finishing with an 11:23.36.

Brookfield sophomore Brody Smith won the long jump event with a 19-10.50 effort. Smith also took the high jump, clearing 6-02.00.

LaBrae junior Matthew Kujala won the shot put event with a 54-05.75. He also took the discus with a 169-06.00.

Newton Falls had a pair of second-place finishes with Dallas Dillon clearing 6-00.00 in the high jump, and Chase Clonch setting a personal best in the long jump with 19-05.00.

Ravenna Southeast’s Julia Wheeler won her second-consecutive 3200, this time by nearly two minutes, finishing with a 11:17.80.