The Milan News-Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
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Big Red boys, girls have little trouble with Riverview
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: April 17, 2008
After their strong performance at the season-opening Clinton Invitational, the Milan track teams might have been expected to start their dual meet schedule with comfortable victories over visiting Riverview Tuesday.
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Consider those expectations met. The two Big Red squads defeated the Pirates by a combined 106 points, with the boys triumphing 87-32 and the girls by a nearly identical score of 85-34.
"I'm happy we won," said boys' head coach Rich Pellegrini. "But it's going to get tougher. The key is staying healthy and eligible. But we've also got to get faster and throw better to beat some of the teams we've got coming up."
The girls' 2007 meet with Riverview came down to the final events, but this year the Big Reds were in control throughout. Head coach Steve Porter said he was "optimistically encouraged" by the Big Reds' performance and said the difference was his team's newfound strength in the sprints, exemplified by Samantha Harmon's first-place 27.94 in the 200-meter dash and the 1-2 finish by Minah Johnson (13.48) and Shaqua Green (13.58) in the 100 dash.
"We have speed this year," Porter said. "We've always had the distance runners, but this year our speed has really improved and we've got a little more depth across the board ... We're way ahead of where we were last year at this time."
Porter did emphasize that his distance runners were still at the top of their game. Sophomore Jordan Tomecek cruised to victory in both the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs in times of 5:34.08 and 12:24.47, respectively. Kara Porter finished as runner-up in both races with Tara Lewis (in the 1,600) and Jenna Manor (in the 3200) making it a Milan sweep in both events. Manor, Porter, Tomecek, and Angela Swain also combined to win the 3,200 relay in 11:02.41.
Swain would go a perfect 4-for-4 on the day, adding first-place finishes in the 400 dash (1:04.34) and the 800 (2:48.84) to go with relay wins in the 3,200 and 1,600, the latter in 4:44.19 alongside Harmon, Loren Weber, and Ashley Agar.
The Milan boys would win the first nine events of the meet and 11 of 15 total to extend their three-year undefeated streak in Huron League duals. Three different Big Reds would win two individual events each, with Ron Spears taking the long jump in 21'7 3/4" (a distance "into the wind" Pellegrini said might put him within shouting distance of Milan's school record) and the 100 dash in 10.94; Kyle Love the 110 and 300 hurdles in 15.79 and 42.58, respectively; and Kyle Anderson the 1,600 in 4:54.94 and the 3,200 in 10:41.93.
Milan claimed two sweeps on the day, with Eric Betts and Bill Egolf finishing second and third behind Love in the 300 hurdles and Scott Kenyon (42'10"), Cory Iott (41;7 1/2") and David Box (41'5") finishing 1-2-3 in the shot put.
Other Milan victories included Anthony Mann, Brian Kirkpatrick, Sam Rowe, and Joe Martin (9:07.7) in the 3,200 relay; Betts (6') in the high jump; Egolf, Randy Butts, Love, and Anthony Marshall in the 800 relay; and Egolf, Butts, Marshall, and Spears in the 400 relay.
Other winners for the Milan girls included Kai Beverly (31' 1 3/4") in the shot put and Johnson, Harmon, Tiffany Kitchen, and Agar in the 400 relay. Weber and Amelia Horton finished 2-3 behind Swain to give Milan a sweep in the 400 dash.
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