KIRTLAND—Cardinal track coach Greg Cicero continues to fine-tune his lineup heading into Tuesday’s Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division track meet, which will take place on Tuesday at Kirtland.
The Huskies got a preview of that meet on Thursday when the finished second to the host Hornets in a tri-meet with Richmond Heights.
“We kind of have an idea where we’re going for the CVC now,” said Cicero, regarding his lineup for the post-season. “We haven’t shown that yet but I’ve got an idea.”
Cicero was pleasantly surprised the performance of his girls’ team, which finished with 61 points, just 14 behind Kirtland.
“Our girls actually did way better than I thought they would,” he said. “We had real strong throwing events with the girls tonight, placing two girls in both events.”
Anna Avalon won the discus with a throw of 96-feet, 9 ½ inches and Jordyn Schultz was second with a toss of 93- 5. Schultz won the shot put (28-6 ½) while Avalon was second (27-2).
“It’s really exciting,” Schultz said. “It’s my first year doing track so being able to come out and do so well is really exciting and it’s good for me to feel proud and have fun.”
Caitlyn Lechene and Stephanie Wolff both earned second place finishes at the meet.
Lechene was second in the 800-meter run (2:47) and Wolff was runner-up in the pole vault with a cleared height of 6-feet.
Erin Ross finished third in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 17.8 seconds and third in the 300 hurdles (52.6).
“Caitlyn Lechene, we threw her in the 800 just to see what she would do and she ran a 2:47 even though she’s never run that race,” Cicero said. “Erin Ross had another solid day behind two very good Kirtland hurdlers. She took third in both.”
Trisha Cesar finished third in the pole vault (5-6) and Ashley Lucarelli was third in the 400-meter dash (1:07). The Huskies’ 4×800-meter relay team finished second.
On the boys’ side, Brandon Wicks won three of the four events in which he competed.
Wicks won the 110 and 300-meter hurdles with times of 17.1 and 44.7 seconds, respectively, and the 200-meter dash in 23.4 seconds. He also placed second in the long jump.
“It was great being out here on a nice beautiful day,” Wicks said. “I could do better but I’m here competing and staying sharp for our CVC championships on Tuesday. I was just out here doing my normal thing and staying in shape and just being ready.”
Nate Peters won both the discus (112-6) and shot put (44-1) and the Huskies’ 4×800-meter relay also placed first with a time of 9:23.8.
Jake Revak was second in the 400-meter dash (56.5) and third in the 100. Hayden Cummins finished second in the mile run with a time of 5:30.
“Today I was about 70-percent satisfied,” Cicero said. “We’ve got some freshmen guys that have to realize that it’s a little bigger than they think and they need to step up. It was a pretty good performance.”
Cardinal’s 4×400-meter relay team looked like it was in position to win when Richmond Heights dropped the baton after the second leg. The Spartans made a move and pulled ahead of Huskies’ anchor Craig Shanower on the final turn to edge the Huskies, 3:49.8 to 3:50.4.
“Those last four guys that ran the 4×4 I trust,” Cicero said. “I made some adjustments right before the race because I trust them and they ran pretty well. Unfortunately we got run down but they ran hard.”
