Hurdle cleared, Roosevelt girls track and field breaks through for Don Faix Invitational title

MANTUA — As Roosevelt closed in on the girls track team title Saturday afternoon at Jack Lambert Stadium, Aaron Carlton was asked the last time the Rough Riders had secured an invitational championship.

The veteran coach wasn't sure.

"It's been quite a while," Carlton said. "Boy, it maybe was six, eight years ago."

Well, now he'll have an exact answer the next time someone asks: April 8, 2023.

That was the day when the Roosevelt girls — at the same event at which they finished fourth a year ago, 66.5 points out of first — snagged the 2023 Don Faix Invitational championship.

"It's huge," Rough Riders senior Lea Parham said. "Everyone, I feel like, looks, I don't know, down on us. Like it just seems like everyone's like, 'Oh, it's Kent, we can win or whatever.' So it's nice to come here and actually get to show what we're worth and how well we work together as a team."

Roosevelt didn't just win. It was dominant, securing Saturday's title by a 42-point margin over runner-up St. Vincent-St. Mary.

"It's a direct result of the work that not only our kids have put in but also our coaching staff," Carlton said. "The expectation coming in every day is we're going to be at the top, we're not going to settle for where we've been in the past. And just that work ethic is the big standard that stands out, and these kids today have really worked hard at getting themselves in the position they are so I'm very proud of them."

Kaidyn Harris, Ella Hassler, Lea Parham star for Roosevelt

A year ago, Parham missed the Don Faix Invitational due to travel soccer.

This year, she had her fingerprints all over Roosevelt's championship.

From start — when she rallied past Ravenna's Avonlea Jefferson to win the 100 hurdles — to finish, when she surged past STVM's Anne Rea early in the anchor leg of the 4x400 and held Rea off by .03 of a second to capture the day's final event, Parham was dominant.

The humble Parham was quick to credit fellow senior Olivia Sams for the way she trimmed what was once a sizable deficit coming out of the 2-3 handoff with her strong finish to the third leg.

"If she didn't close that, I don't know that I would have had the motivation to push and go for the win," Parham said. "When I saw [Rea] in my peripheral [coming down the home stretch], I was like, 'There's no way I'm gonna run this whole thing 100 percent and go to the last five steps and lose,' so I just tried to push it those five steps and get the win."

Parham wasn't the only helpful addition Saturday.

While Parham missed last year's Don Faix Invitational due to club soccer, Kaidyn Harris couldn't compete for the 2022 Rough Riders for a very simple reason — she was in the eighth grade.

The Rough Riders freshman had a huge impact Saturday, winning every single event in which she participated, two individual (100 meters and long jump) and two team (4x200 and 4x400 relays) events.

"I'm very proud of myself because I didn't think that I would be able to do it because you're now going against seniors and juniors," Harris said. "I'm pretty proud of myself."

Harris' 100 title was particularly impressive as the freshman, who entered with the third-fastest seed time, edged Ravenna's Samantha Weber 13.37-13.51 for first.

"She's my girl," Parham said of Harris. "In practice, we're running head to head on our 100 dash and stuff. We push each other and it's really good to see her showing that in the numbers."

Ella Hassler was another welcome addition after not competing at last year's Don Faix Invitational. The junior had a valuable impact on the Bridget Franek Track Saturday, including titles in the open 400 and the 4x400 relay.

Still, while the addition of Harris, Hassler and Parham added a bevy of points, Saturday's title was surely a team effort.

"Those three are pretty important winning titles and that, but we have a large group of young freshmen that are coming in and filling in our relays," Carlton said. "So it's not just Kaidyn and the leadership that Lea and Ella provide us, but the other underclassmen. Lindsay Wills and Mahlia Friedman did a really nice job as well filling in our relays."

Indeed, Roosevelt snagged 34 points out of a possible 40 in its four relays.

"Our relays really are the big things," Carlton said. "We've gone from scoring fourth, fifth, sixth place in relays [to] we went one, two, three and one."

Rough Riders junior Jeanie Barzellato added 10 points of her own with her fourth-place finishes in the 1,600 (5:52.27) and 3,200 (12:47.25). Sams was another key cog, snagging three points with a sixth-place finish in the 800 while also running in the 4x200, 4x400 and 4x800 relays.

And who could forget Friedman's stellar pass on the final leg of the 4x100, which was later repeated by Parham's pass in the 4x400.

"I think the whole team put her in position to do that, but then Maliah, she works her tail off in practice and she does nothing but give us 100 percent," Carlton said. "She just has the will to win and was able to surge and win that 4x100 for us."

With all those efforts, and many more, the Rough Riders' first invitational championship in years wasn't particularly close. Indeed, Roosevelt secured it with 125 points, well ahead of the Fighting Irish's 83.

"Across the board, just about every event, we were scoring two athletes in each of the individual events," Carlton said. "So that really does start to add up when you get a sixth place here and a fifth place there."

The result wasn't just a championship.

It was endless hope for the season ahead.

"It just means that we're doing good, and a lot of people underestimate Kent Roosevelt," Harris said. "It's just we're proud as a team that we win and people know that we're good instead of underestimating us."

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Hurdle cleared, Roosevelt girls track and field breaks through