Jumpers lead strong performance by Nordonia girls track at district meet

Finishing just over 11 points out of third place in this year’s District Championships says a lot about the Nordonia girls track and field squad.

The Knights were fueled by individual district championships by Emily Eterovich in the pole vault competition and by Alexis Hives in the long jump.

Nordonia hosted the Division I district championships Wednesday and Friday as the top four athletes in each event advanced to the Austintown Fitch Regional Championships May 25 and May 27.

The Knight women took fifth-place out of 14 teams with 60 points.

A huge championship by Eterovich led the charge as the Knight senior beat top seed Lindsey Havens, of Hudson, with an outstanding effort of 11-feet and 4.0 inches.

All Hives did was execute a rare occurrence by qualifying for regionals in four events.

The gifted Hives won the long jump with a leap of 18-feet and .50 inches and the junior also made the regional meet cut in the 100-meter hurdles, 800-meter relay and in the 400-relay.

Co-head coaches Ron Gura and Mike Martin saw their club remain in the upper division in a loaded district meet with three familiar league rivals as their athletes exceeded their season best performances in most cases.

Twinsburg won the district crown with 117.10 points over Hudson (104).

“The girls had a very good district meet placing fifth overall,” offered an elated Martin. “We were led by district champions Emily Eterovich in the pole vault and Alexis Hives in the long jump.”

An individual district champion, Eterovich bested Havens, who cleared the bar at 11-0 feet.

As Eterovich looks forward to regional action at Fitch, she has cleared 11-6 feet this season.

Hives won the long jump as the third seed as she had an 18-00.25-foot effort in the preliminaries at Boliantz Stadium and then beat that mark with yet another strong jump in the finals.

“Hives really had an outstanding day,” pointed out Martin.

Another athlete who had a great district meet was senior Saidah Adeyemi, who was the district runner up in the high jump.

Adeyemi competed with the events’ champion, Cuyahoga Falls’ Ellie Brustoski, and the top seeds – Twinsburg’s Sydnee Donegan and Revere’s Kayla Kephart, who both reached 5-0 feet coming into the district action.

Adeyemi cleared a season-best 4-feet 11.0 inches, to place behind Brustoski (5-0), and beat Donegan and Kephart, who like a few others, reached 4-10.

“Saidah also qualified for regional in the high jump placing second overall with a season’s best jump,” observed Martin.

Boasting a great time in the 100-meter hurdles, Hives qualified for regionals with a sterling third-place in the event. Hives posted a finals time of 16.31 seconds.

Nordonia’s relays were sensational as three of the four placed third at district with a chance to compete at the Fitch regional.

The third-place 800 relay crossed in a blazing fast time of 1:45.65. Making up the relay was junior Rachel Dudich, junior Tamia Hameed, Hives, and Adeyemi.

Also collecting third in a fast time of 4:12.34 was the 1,600-meter relay of Adeyemi, Hameed, junior Vegas Roganish, and freshman standout Riley Barwidi.

“The ladies capped a great meet by qualifying in the last event of the night, placing third in the 1,600 relay,” said Martin.

“That 1,600-meter relay ran a season’s best by nearly 10 seconds,” pointed out Martin.

Nordonia’s 400-meter relay also reached regionals as they ran third at the district in 49.67 seconds behind the efforts of Dudich, Hives, Eterovich, and Hameed.

Hameed was exceptional and just missed a regional berth in a fourth event! She ran fifth in the 200-meter dash as she was clocked at 26.55 seconds.

Scoring with a superb effort of 9-0 feet in the pole vault, senior Madelyn Soder finished eighth overall for the Knights.

Taking seventh-place in the 800-meters and scoring was Barwidi, who registered her best race with a time of 2:28.59.

Just missing to score was senior Analeise Artino, who crossed a season-best 2:30.21 in the 800-meters.

Artino did help the Knights’ 3,200-meter relay to score as all four Nordonia relays scored. Joining Artino in the relay (10:44.61) was the freshman trio of Sarah Sedor, Steph Sberna, and Payton Pelkowski.

Junior Sade Lewis ran well and just missed reaching the 200-meter finals as she crossed in 27.82 seconds.

In the 1,600 race, the freshman duo of Pelkowski (5:50.14) and Lanie Tedor (5:56.77) performed well for the Knights.

The 47th annual girls state championships are set for June 3 and 4 at Jeese Owens Memorial Stadium at The Ohio State University.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Jumpers lead strong performance by Nordonia girls track at district