Staff photo / Brian Yauger Austintown Fitch junior pole vaulter Noah Snyder clears the bar during Tuesday’s tri-meet at the Falcons’ home facility.

AUSTINTOWN — With the Mahoning County Championships scheduled for Saturday, the Fitch track team got some much-desired preparation Tuesday in a tri-meet with Howland and Canfield.

“It’s always nice when you can have good spring weather like we had today on the day of the competition,” Falcons coach Seth Steiner said. “Really, we used today to fine tune things to get ourselves ready for Saturday’s Mahoning County Championships, which we put a lot of weight on.”

So far in the season, the Falcons’ field event competitors have been leaving an impact on Steiner. With two members setting top-five in the state marks Tuesday, one of them a freshman, the seventh-year Fitch coach is getting excited about what the team can be this year and down the road as well.

“Our highlights today were definitely in the field events,” Steiner said. “Our best discus thrower right now is Jameire Robinson. He threw 170-plus feet, which would rank him probably fourth in the state overall, all divisions, and I think No. 2 in Division I.

“We also had one of our freshman, D.J. Williams, really step up. He threw 140 today which puts him as the number one freshman in the state by over 12 feet, so we’re definitely excited about it in regards to our future.”

After a year without competitions and what is essentially two freshmen classes, the Falcons are relying heavily on the experience possessed by their junior and senior classes early in the season.

“I think we’re really fortunate to have the seniors and juniors that we do that are playing a very big role for us,” Steiner said.

With 14 letterwinners returning from the 2019 season, that experience is going to be even more crucial as the season progresses and the preparation for the league and district meets approach.

Going into Saturday’s meet, the Falcons have some tough competition and are going to utilize that experience and stack their lineup as much as possible.

Staff photo / Brian Yauger Falcons freshman Emily Beany runs during a relay event as a part of Tuesday’s tri-meet with Howland and Canfield.

“I know that we’re definitely going to load up our lineup,” Steiner said. “We definitely want to see what we’re capable of doing. We have some good competition this year. Boardman has a nice team and our schedule so far this year I feel like has really prepared us.

“We hosted the Early Bird meet the first weekend of the season and we had 14 really, really competitive teams come in and we won that meet, so I think that was a nice little way to see what we’re capable of doing.”

The goal this season is to make up for lost time. After missing last season and after having a successful indoor season over the winter, the main hope for the Falcons is to send as many athletes as possible down to Columbus for the state meet in early June.

With the experience they possess, Steiner thinks Fitch has a pretty good chance of getting a few to the big stage.

“We have very good junior and senior classes and I think those guys have the capabilities of making a nice run this postseason,” he said. “We will definitely set our sights high. Hopefully come mid-to-late May, we’re geared up and we’re ready to make a nice little run to the postseason.”

The Mahoning County Championships are set for Saturday at Fitch High School. The competition is set to begin at 9 a.m.