The Kent Roosevelt boys track and field team captured the championship at the Crestwood Don Faix Invitational last weekend.

By Roger Gordon

Correspondent

The following is a recap of last Saturday’s Don Faix Invitational track and field meet at Crestwood High School. There were a total of 15 boys teams and 14 girls teams from Northeast Ohio that competed.

KENT ROOSEVELT

The Kent Roosevelt track and field’s Carter Stevenson could have went to his knees and crawled to victory in the 3,200. The senior Rough Rider’s time was 10:01.08, nearly 37 seconds faster than his closest competitor. For good measure, Stevenson captured the 1,600 title, too, with a time of 4:35.43.

“Carter worked his tail off all winter,” head coach Andrew Murray said. “He had a great cross-country season, and he’s a hockey player, and he still gets out and runs all winter. He’s really diligent about his training routine. I think he’s really starting to reap the benefits of that and see the rewards.”

Kent Roosevelt won the team title with 135.5 points.

“We knew we’d have a shot to compete as a team going in,” said Murray. “Our distance runners this season have really led the charge not just with what they’re doing on the track but with the tone they’ve set at practice for how they want to work this year.”

Seniors Jaiden Portis and Ke’ Shan Talbert, junior Tyler Ellington and sophomore Hasim White joined forces to capture the championship in the 800 relay with a time of 1:31.10. The same four athletes also combined to finish runner-up in the 400 relay, clocking in at 44.17.

“Those four did awesome,” the coach said. “They’ve worked really hard to get those exchanges down. We haven’t had as much practice as we would’ve liked, so to see them get the baton around cleanly and put up the times they did at this time of the season with limited reps overall was really exciting to see. If they can do that with limited practice in early April, that kind of sets the bar for what they should or could be able to do a month from now.”

Other individual titles went to junior Max Froman in the discus (142-7), senior Kyle McQueen in the 300 hurdles (40.91) and Portis in long jump (21-5). McQueen, seniors Braylon Hawthorne and Dean Foster and sophomore Josiah Atanga joined forces to win the 1,600 relay with a time of 3:37.29.

FIELD

Last season, Field’s Cedric Martin set school records in the 100 and 200 sprints and also as the anchor on both the 400 and 800 relay teams.

This season, the senior Falcon aims to add a school record in the 400 notch to his belt.

He is off to a good start.

He won the 400 on Saturday with a time of 52.21. He also finished fifth in both the 100 (11.5) and 200 (23.35).

“Cedric has been really our strength in our sprint division over the last two years,” head coach Ed Conroy said. “The goal is to teach him the proper way to run the 400, but also keep him healthy through the whole season. We’re not as worried about his times right now, but that we progress him at a fair rate, something that keeps his body from peaking too early. Cedric is competitive. We know we have plenty of time until we get into the postseason competition, so we’re not rushing him.”

Mason Prusha, Martin’s classmate, was a member of the winning 3,200 relay (8:40.94), with Tristain Hogan, Evan Pruszynski and Emmett Fuentes-Bonilla. He was also second (10:38.03) in the 3,200 and fifth (4:48.66) in the 1,600.

“Mason is a team player,” Conroy said. “To do three events this early in the year and to compete as well as he did is a testimony to his strength. He trains all winter long, puts the true mileage in during the off-season and is a very dedicated athlete.”

Overall, Field finished third with 74 points.

“I thought it was a good start for us,” said the coach. “We’re coming off of a pretty strong team from last year being district champs. We lost some pretty good athletes, but our senior group this year is solid, a very athletic group.”

AURORA

If this is how Johnny Trivisonno performs in track and field with only little more than a year competing in the sport, imagine how good the Aurora senior would be had he been participating in it since middle school.

Trivisonno broke the school record in the long jump with a leap of 23 feet, 2 inches in a dual meet last week at Cuyahoga Falls.

He continued his strong season Saturday with a second- place finish in long jump with a leap of 21-2. He also placed fifth in the high jump with a height of 5-8.

“Johnny is jumping really well for us,” head coach Chris Radtke said. “He’s just starting to figure out the high jump.”

Trivisonno also joined Aaron Choong, Jayden Orr and Dorian Gooden on the 800-meter relay team that finished third with a time of 1 minute, 35.63 seconds.

Sophomore Jacoby Schadle took third in the shot put with a toss of 46-1.

“Jacoby threw really well,” said Radtke. “He’s really starting to figure things out. His throw was a nice mark to get this early in the season.”

Overall, the Red Devils finished fourth with 54 points.

“We were a little banged up, so we didn’t have some of our top runners,” said the coach. “The younger guys stepped up and shined. They did really well.”

RAVENNA

Considering how young his team is, Ravenna head coach Ceon Kelly was pleased with the Ravens’ seventh-place finish that produced 38.5 points.

“We did well,” he said, “but I want to score more points in the sprints.”

One bright spot was senior Mason Scott, who finished runner-up in the 300 hurdles (41.19) and fifth in the 110 hurdles (15.74).

He also was joined by senior LaDarion Askew, D’Anthony Allen and Curtis Ross in placing fourth (1:35.94) in the 800 relay, a relay that qualified for the state meet last year.

“I was very proud of Mason,” said Kelly. “He suffered a knee bruise early in the meet, but gutted it out and performed well in the long jump (ninth with a leap of 18-8) considering the injury.”

Sophomore Issac Thompson had a nice day in finishing sixth in the 400 with a personal best time of 54.32. He also combined with Ross, Askew and Jack Mastersto to take fifth in the 1,600 relay, clocking in at 3:42.76.

CRESTWOOD

Crestwood is green this season, there’s no doubt about it.

Thus the Red Devils’ ninth-place finish that resulted in 24 points was not exactly a surprise, but head coach Jack Blasiole was nonetheless pleased with what he saw.

“There were some bigger schools there, some good competition,” he said. “I liked the way we competed against those schools.”

Sam Roosa and Austin Wurm are two seniors who showed their younger teammates how it’s done.

Roosa captured the shot put championship with a throw of 48-6, and he finished fourth in the discus with a toss of 137-5. Wurm was runner-up in the high jump with a leap of 6-2 (he lost to the winner by misses).

“Sam has been working his butt off for four years to get where he’s at right now. It’s really a testament to what he’s done to get where he’s at now,” said Blasiole. “Austin just works hard, puts time in and does everything he needs to do to master his skill – the high jump.”

EAST CANTON INVITATIONAL

ROOTSTOWN

Of Rootstown’s 29 team members, 12 are freshmen and five are sophomores.

“We’re very young,” head coach Larry Bailey said, “but we’re getting better every day.”

Two underclassmen who performed admirably were sophomore Troy Kopac and junior Brayden Polcyn, who tied for fourth in the high jump with leaps of 5-8. Kopac took eighth in the long jump, too, with a leap of 17-10.

“Those were their best efforts ever, so they’re making a lot of progress,” said Bailey.

Kopac was also a member of the sixth-place 1,600 relay (3:59.10) and 3,200 relay (9:17.40) teams.