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The rallying cry for Lake's track and field teams this season has been “bring home the hardware.”
Last Saturday, at the eight-team Liberty Center Invitational, the Flyers' boys’ team did just that in winning the championship trophy.
“Everyone at school tells me that's the first invite we've ever won,”' second-year coach Dominick Kaple said. “They said if we had won one it was in the 1970s or early 1980s. It was huge. All week we talked about taking home a trophy. It's been forever. Just to see the kids' excitement and for them to know the hard work is paying off. We had 25 kids who had perfect attendance at the boys' and girls' summer workouts.”
Entering Tuesday's meet at Woodmore, Lake's boys had a 3-1 dual record and a seventh-place finish at the Bowling Green Relays. The Flyers' dual wins are over Rossford, Elmwood and Gibsonburg, and their only loss is to 10-time defending Suburban Lakes League champion Eastwood.
Lake's top performers this season include junior Dylan Hirzel in the 110 and 300 hurdles and junior Nathan Adkins in the distance events.
Hirzel is a member of Lake's 4x100 relay, which is undefeated, and the 4x200 relay. Both relays include senior Ahmad Ismail, sophomore Zach Schroeder and junior Tim Lohmann.
“At the beginning of the year we weren't sure what we had,” Kaple said. “This is Tim's first year out for track and he's been a huge boost to our team, not only in meets but the competition he brings to practice every day.”
Schroeder won the 200 and took second in the 100 at Liberty Center, while Adkins won the 3200 and also earned points in the 800 and 1600. Adkins won the 800, 1600 and 3200 in the dual against Eastwood.
“Once we get to league meets and districts, we're going to have to figure out what's his best shot to win it,” Kaple said of Adkins. “He'll definitely be in the 800. He is a captain and he had an outstanding cross-country season. He's a guy who wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and does his morning runs. He's got a chance to be one of the best distance guys to compete at Lake.”
Sophomore Mitchell Adkins, who won the discus at Liberty Center, is already throwing around 125 feet, and freshman Scott Brittenham has been scoring points in the high jump.
“Scott's been below five minutes in the mile and he's at 5-8 in the high jump,” Kaple said, adding that senior high-jumper Devon Robinson has gone 5-10 this season.
The Flyers, who took sixth at last year's SLL meet, are aiming much higher this season, according to Kaple.
“Obviously we want to compete for a league championship,” he said. “Eastwood speaks for itself. We want to compete and hopefully bring home a first-place or runner-up trophy. All year we've been talking about bringing hardware home, so first place is our goal. Eastwood is at the top and then everyone else is right there, so it's going to be an interesting meet.”
Lake's girls’ squad has high expectations as well.
“We want to win a championship and bring hardware home,” Kaple said. “First place is our goal. District-wise, we have a lot of girls who have had a taste of regionals. They've been preaching all year long how they want to get medals at regionals.”
The Flyers took second at Liberty Center last weekend and also placed fifth at the BG Relays behind second-place finishes from sophomore Rebecca Boos in the 200 and 400. Boos ran on Lake's 4x200 relay that went to regionals last year.
“Rebecca bought into our program last year as a freshman,” Kaple said. “She won the 200 at Eastwood and she did real well at BG. She brings it every day to practice.”
The entire 4x200 relay team is back this year and includes sophomores Ashley Timmons and Nichole Henry and senior Jessica Abbey, who placed second in the SLL in the 400 last year and advanced to regionals.
“Jessica is in her second year as a captain and she's really taken a leadership role,” Kaple said. “Her performance in the summer and winter is really showing off. We have high expectations for her. She's getting recruited by a lot of schools in the area for the 400 and 800.”
The 4x400 relay team of Boos, freshman Nicole Pennington, senior Emily Whitmore and Abbey took second at BG and Liberty Center this season.
“We have high expectations for them,” Kaple said. “They've run 4:19 this year and we're looking to get them out of districts and compete for a league championship. Pennington has been outstanding in the 100 and 200 and we have high hopes for her the next three years.”
The Flyers' top hurdlers, Whitmore and junior Hunter Johnson, have consistently finished second and third all season, Kaple said. Johnson (16-2) and Timmons (15-8) have done well in the long jump, as has the 4x800 relay team of Abbey, Whitmore and juniors Tatiana Walters and Hailee Greenlese.
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