'A cooperative effort': Stark County indoor track and field meet grows in second year

ALLIANCE — Winter's wrath never slows runners, jumpers and throwers. When it's time to compete, they just move everything inside.

Ohio high school track and field athletes have competed indoors for several years. Their seasons align with college teams, who have busy schedules running from January through March.

Holding one meet to determine Stark County champions is relatively new. After a couple of tries, the idea appears here to stay.

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Seventeen area schools competed in Sunday's Stark County Indoor Track and Field Championships at Mount Union. Some outside the county are already taking notice.

"I was talking to a coach from Salem, and he was very jealous," longtime Marlington boys head coach Bob Dagenhardt said. "He wanted to get in it. He wanted to appeal to some of the coaches and see.

"It's a nice-sized meet. We have these mega meets for the rest of our schedule, but this is nice. It's well run. It's a cooperative effort with the various schools."

East Canton head coach Tom Loy came up with the idea of having an indoor county meet. Ten schools participated in the inaugural meet in 2023. This year's meet served as a qualifier for the Ohio Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches State Championships set for March 1 and 2 at Spire Institute.

"It gets a lot of Stark County kids some credit," Loy said. "Every school in the county has an official indoor program. Some only have five or six kids. Some will have 40 kids.

"The outdoor meet that's put on is so good, I said let's do something for indoor."

Several head coaches and assistants play important roles in the meet's success.

Perry's Joey Beall and Emily Mazzeferi and GlenOak's Mark Mazzeferi handled the finish line timing and scoring. Central Catholic's John Paul worked admissions. Coaches from East Canton, Fairless, McKinley, Northwest, Perry and Tuslaw ran the field events.

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Mount Union track and field head coach Kevin Lucas was the announcer during the first half of the meet. When Lucas had to leave, Perry boys coach Mike Laubacher took over.

"I think it's really a nice fraternity," Dagenhardt said. "This was under the auspices of the Stark County Cross Country Coaches Association, and it's a wonderful group. It's one of a kind. Not a lot of counties have things like this and do these kind of things."

Loy said last year's event lost just a minimal amount of money. All signs point to Sunday's meet turning a profit.

"We're not going to make a lot of money, but eventually we will," Loy said. "We would like it to go to a scholarship for Stark County kids."

The indoor meet is becoming a hit with the athletes.

"This is my first year, and it's very fun, very exciting," Northwest distance runner Madelyn Begert said. "I love it."

The meet gives Perry hurdler and sprinter Camille Neutzling another opportunity to compete against runners she will se several times in the coming months.

"My biggest competitors like (McKinley's) Robbaniquea Blakely and (Massillon's) Trinity Lamp, I wouldn't be here without them," Neutzling said. "Being able to compete against them indoors in a specific event, it comes in handy outdoors."

Neutzling had a big impact in Perry winning the girls team title. She won the 60-meter hurdles and ran on the Panthers' winning 800 and 1,600 relays.

Perry had nine first-place finishes.

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"I'm very proud of my teammates and how we were able to support each other," Neutzling said. "We didn't get first last year, so this year being my last year and have that win with the other girls is pretty awesome."

The boys team title came down to the final event. A win by Marlington's Colin Cernansky, Logan Citino, Logan Kuhn and Luke Ryan in the 1,600-meter relay helped the Dukes edge runner-up McKinley by 2.5 points. It was Marlington's sixth win.

"Our goal was to come here and really get some quality performances to qualify for the indoor state meet," Dagenhardt said. "We improved in several areas today. We moved kids up in the rankings, so this was a good week for us. We accomplished a lot of what we wanted to accomplish besides getting the trophy."

Reach Mike at mike.popovich@cantonrep.com

On X: @mpopovichREP

STARK COUNTY INDOOR TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS

BOYS

Team scores

1, Marlington 80; 2, McKinley 77.5; 3, Hoover 75; 4, Perry 71; 5, GlenOak 64; 6, Massillon 62.5; 7, East Canton 28; 8, Minerva 26; 9, Fairless 15; 10, Louisville 14; 11, Tuslaw 13; 12, Lake 11; 13, Central Catholic 8; 14 (tie), Alliance 6, Northwest 6; 16, Jackson 5; 17, Canton South 3.

Individual results

3,200-meter relay: Perry (Detter, Reese, Simonson, Reed) 8:15.12. 800 relay: GlenOak (Jam. McClendon Jav. McClendon, Greenwood, Wilcox) 1:35.05. 1,600: Citino (Mar) 4:29.66. 60 hurdles: Williams (Mass) 8.79. 60: Gamble (Mass) 7.13. 400: Paolini (GO) 53.03. 800: Cernansky (Mar) 2:00.07. 200: Wilcox (GO) 23.49. 3,200: Craig (H) 10:05.95. 1,600 relay: Marlington (Cernansky, Citino, Kuhn, Ryan) 3:40.84. High jump: Quincy (McK) 6-4. Long jump: Lemon (Mass) 21-11.75. Pole vault: Smart (H) 11-0. Shot put: Lester (Mar) 48-4.5. Triple jump: Beggs (Mar) 40-2.5. Weight throw: Lester (Mar) 57-0.

GIRLS

Team scores

1, Perry 129.5; 2, GlenOak 84; 3, Hoover 62; 4, Minerva 58; 5, Massillon 50; 6, McKinley 34; 7, Canton South 27; 8, Marlington 24; 9, Northwest 20; 10, East Canton 19; 11, Louisville 14; 12, Fairless 9.5; 13, Tuslaw 8; 14, Alliance 6; 15, Lake 5; 16, Central Catholic 1.

Individual results

3,200-meter relay: GlenOak (Ames, Esporite, Salem, Ngetich) 10:13.44. 800 relay: Perry (Neutzling, Reese, Papacostas, Karrenbauer) 1:50.12. 1,600: Begert (NW) 5:21.79. 60 hurdles: Neutzling (P) 9.28. 60: Harsh (H) 7.88. 60 seated: DiPietro (P) 17.32. 400: Harsh (H) 59.93. 400 seated: DiPietro (P) 1:56.62. 800: Dempsey (H) 2:27.73. 200: Harsh (H) 25.78. 3,200: Begert (NW) 11:30.72. 1,600 relay: Perry (Offineer, Dostal, Neutzling, Reese) 4:17.65. High jump: Laubacher (P) 5-2. Long jump: Sterling (McK) 17-6. Pole vault: Bisesi (GO) 11-0. Shot put: Perry (P) 34-4. Triple jump: Laubacher (P) 33-2.5. Weight throw: Perry (P) 42-7.5. Shot put seated: Mendenhall (Mass) 15-10.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Stark County indoor track and field meet grows in second year