Sunday, May 31, 1998

Going the distance
Fries, Shook set pace for Seneca East

By Dave Feltner
Sports Editor

FOSTORIA - It was a hot, sweaty, muggy day, the kind of day that takes its toll on distance runners. It was also the kind of day made for stars like Brianna Shook and Vincent Fries.

The Seneca East duo took center stage at the Division III regional track meet at Fosotria's Memorial Stadium Saturday, and had the kind of day that left even their coaches in awe.

Shook, the state record holder in the 3200, was a dominant force in crusing to victory in both the 1600 and 3200, while Fries was victorious in the 3200 and finished second in the 1600, just 34 hundreths of a second out of first.

Shook completed the 1600 in 5:11.3, nearly six seconds ahead of her closest competitor. Her 3200 victory was even more impressive. Shook stuck with the pack through the first mile, but was all alone for most of the second mile. Her winning time of 11:40.17 was 14 seconds better than the second place finisher.

The top four finishers in each event qualify for the state meet at the Jesse Owens track in Columbus on Friday and Saturday.

''This is kind of new because she hasn't run both the 1600 and 3200 for much of the year,'' Seneca East distance coach Jeff Phillips said. ''I wasn't necessarily expecting her to win both with this kind of heat today. But Brianna's a well-conditioned athlete whol knows what she has to do everytime she goes out there.

''I was just hoping she go out and run her race, run a good time and if she got first ... great.''

Fries led the Tiger boys to 48 team points and a second place finish, just behind Liberty Center (49). The Seneca East girls totaled 41 points for a third place finish behind Cory-Rawson (66) and Liberty Center (47).

Seneca East was only a part of a big day for local competitors. Calvert's boys added more highlights to its best season in school history, led again by brothers Matt and Brad Hammer.

Brad Hammer ran a 49.48 to win the 400 and then came back to post a 22.72 to take second in the 200. Matt Hammer's time of 1:57.85 landed him in third in the 800.

But the Hammers joined Todd Iannantuono and Ryan Schumm to make the biggest noise of the day in the day's final race - the 4 x 400.

That group blazed to victory in 3:24.85 to outdistance the team from Liberty-Benton. Calvert's 4 x 800 team set the school mark of 3:30.0 at the District meet last week, set it again in Thursday's preliminaries and obliterated it by more than five seconds on Saturday.

Calvert actually trailed Liberty-Benton by about five feet when Brad Hammer took to the last leg. But Hammer made his move down the backstretch and finished more than a second ahead of the L-B team.

''They amaze me,'' Calvert coach Stewart Behm said. ''They've taken five seconds off their time since Thursday. That's amazing. We trailed on that last leg, but Brad is such a strong runner. I knew he'd bring it in for us.''

The Senecas also had a state qualifier from the girls team. Sara Riley had a 121-8 toss in the discus, a five-foot personal best, to finish second.

''Not only was that her PR by five feet, but she really needed that,'' Behm said. ''The fourth place finisher threw 119-8 so that was a big throw by Sara.''

Brad Hammer's victory in the 400 also provided the most controversial moment of the meet. Hammer appeared to cross the line a few steps behindBettsville's Doug Wolf. And after the race the ''pickers'' all selected Wolf as the winner.

A review of the tape, however, showed that it was Hammer who was ahead. The question seemed to be whether or not the video recorder was lined up in the correct spot.

''Honestly, from where I was sitting I thought Doug won the race,'' Behm said. ''But we all watched the film and Brad was ahead.''

The area also had another winner, New Riegel's Denise Reinhard who finished the 300 hurdles in 46.71.

Seneca East's boys got a second place finish from Mike Schock in the 110 hurdles (15.1) and a third from Aaron Hay in the 3200 (9:43.97).

They'll join teammates Josh Depinet, who won the pole vault on Thursay with a leap of 13-0, and the 4 x 800 team of Scott Elmlinger, Morgan Gillett, Hay and Arick Dentinger who finished third with a time of 8:12.6 on Thursday.

''I know from Vince's point of view things probably could have been better,'' SE boys coach Rod Schar said. ''But we were just hoping he'd go out and run his best in both races. He came with a first and a second and I think that's great.

''A lot of our credit has to go to our assistants. Ron Martin does a great job with the runners, Ed Phillips with Josh in the pole vault and Ron Foos with our sprinters.''

St. Wendelin's boys will send a pair of individuals to the state meet. Jaymes Mennel took second in the 800 (1:57.6) and Matt Urbanski was third in the 3200 (9:45.54). Mennel will also join Aaron Lininger, Dustin Faeth and Brad Welly in the 4 x 800, which ran a winning time of 8:11.7 on Thursday.

Hopewell-Loudon's Luke Clarkson also qualified for state when he finished fourth in the 1600. His time of 4:27.7 broke his own school record.

''Luke was ready for this,'' Hopewell-Loudon coach Tom Weaver said. ''This is just what I expected out of him. He was pretty confident coming into this race.''

Other girls to qualify on Saturday were Seneca East's Abby Phillips who finished third in the 3200 (11:55.1), the Carey 4 x 100 team (third, 51.6) and the Seneca East 4 x 400 team of Sarah Ruffing, Lindsay Ranker, Sarah Reiter and Jackie Fries (fourth, 4:09.97).

Carey's Beth Baldridge finised second in the high jump (5-6) on Thursday and the SE 4 x 800 team of Abby Phillips, Shook, Ranker and Ruffing ran a victorious time of 9:45.3 on Thursday.