Wolverines and Lady Wildcats top Lawrence County contingent in Tri-County championship

Apr. 29—The Ellwood City Lincoln High boys and Shenango's girls track and field teams left the Tri-County Championship meet as victors on Saturday.

The Wolverines took first with a final score of 129, narrowly beating Shenango who took second at 126.

"If I'm being completely honest, I wasn't expecting it," Ellwood City coach Nathan Brown said. "We went into it with the mentality that we were going to rest some guys and not go full tilt because we qualified for the team playoffs for the first time in a long time. Tri-County wasn't our biggest priority but that goes to show the sheer talent we have right now...It was really unexpected."

Shenango toppled the competition with a score of 172 to take first place in the girls championship.

"I don't want to say we were top heavy, but we have a lot of finishers in the top three," Shenango coach John Montgomery said. "Our jumpers and throwers carried us all year. We had three girls on the podium in shot put and discus. The throwers showed up. Matt Callahan's our throwing coach and he does an awesome job. We expect our throwers to show up big. I have jumpers who are absolutely phenomenal. At Tri-County, you need those kids to place high to score the points. Our girls 400 relay win every week. That was nice a time for them and the 4x400 team. The points add up pretty quickly."

Finishing third for the boys meet was Mohawk with a score of 113. Riverside placed second (98) while Laurel (88) took third in the girls meet.

In the girls meet, Laurel's Tori Atkins placed first in three events. Atkins won the 100 meter race at 12.50.

Atkins also won the 200 meter race and the 400 meter race with times of 25.08 and 58.33, respectively.

Shenango's Sara Roe took first place in the long jump (18-0.25) and triple jump events (36-5).

"She has been working on the long jump and triple jump year-round. She's over there in the summers jumping in her off time," Montgomery said of Roe. "She had a good indoor season. She went to the states at Penn State (for indoor track and field). Its been one long continuous season for her. She's jumping over a-foot-and-a-half of the state qualifier. I expect her hitting 19-feet jumps soon. Addy Kays, she's a senior, but she's in the mid 17 (feet) every meet now. Having those two is such a nice advantage. They're two of the best in the WPIAL. The best thing of those two jumping is they have competition. They want to beat each other and the best thing in the world is friendly competition on a team."

Mohawk's Ellie Whippo dominated the hurdles after winning the 100 meter hurdle race at 16.37 and then the 300 meter hurdle race at 47.23.

In the boys meet, multiple personal records were set.

Ellwood City's Nick Franitti placed first in the 110 meter hurdles race with a time of 15.61. Franitti also placed first in the 300 meter hurdles with a personal record of 41.40.

"He's one of our more consistent athletes; always hitting the same times at every single meet," Brown said of Franitti. "Last year, we realized toward the end or middle of the season that he had a a lot more to go. As we build, we start earlier. He came out earlier than he ever has. He started to look like a real runner before the season started. He's stronger than ever exponentially and he's putting out the times he was capable of ever since being on the team. I don't think he's hit his best. He has a lot more left in the tank and a lot further to go. I think his times are going to drop significantly."

Shenango's Colton Fedrizzi took first and had personal records in the shot put (54-7.5) and discus (143-6) events. Brody McQuiston won the 100 and 200 meter races with times of 11.68 and 23.71, respectively, for the Wildcats.

McQuiston's time int he 100 meter race was a personal record.

Mohawk's Jaxon Schoedel set a school record in the 1600 meter race at 4:32.17. Schoedel placed first in the 3200 meter race at 9:47.06.