Regional track: Cloverleaf boys relay team advances to state

AUSTINTOWN — Gavin Forbes threw his hands in the air in celebration, let out a scream and hugged Matthew Jenkins after Jenkins crossed the finish line in the 4x800-meter relay Thursday at the Austintown Fitch Division III Regional. The Cloverleaf boys locked into the state track and field meet at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in Columbus next week. "All week we've been thinking about going to state," Forbes said. "We've been talking about it, just trying to make that dream a reality, and I knew he had it in him. He's a great closer, and it was a great day, great competition, a good finish." Caleb Neville, Noah Mion, Forbes and Jenkins finished in a time of 8:03.7, good enough for third place behind CVCA and Woodridge. The top five clinched spots to state, with West Geauga and Keystone also advancing. CVCA won with a time of 8:01.05, while Woodridge ran an 8:01.70. Neville led off for the Colts and was leading the race when he handed the baton to Mion. "I always want to set these guys up with a good race, so you're always just trying your hardest," Neville said. "Honestly, you can never have a doubt in your mind that you're not going to make it." Mion took the baton for his 800 and finished neck-and-neck with John Brock of Woodridge, barely handing off to Forbes before Brock handed to Xavier Griffiths. "In the last 200, I just really wanted to stay with Woodridge, see if I can outkick him at the end," Mion said. "I wanted to get in a good spot for our team and secure states for us." Jenkins ran the final leg, like always, and closed to send he and his teammates to Columbus. When he crossed the finish line and saw Neville, Mion and Forbes celebrating, all he could think of was the hard work that had been put in to make the final meet. "All the hard days paid off," Jenkins said. "All the days just working together as a team, building chemistry, getting better every meet, it just all pays off at this moment. This great team chemistry brought us here." The finish was the same order as the Woodridge District, as CVCA, Woodridge and Cloverleaf battled for the top three spots. "I think it makes it a little bit easier to compete with them since you know we raced them before," Mion said. "It was pretty nice race with them in districts." The time was more than five seconds better than the district time of 8:09.06 and fewer than six seconds off the school record of 7:57.9 set in 1986. The school record was one of the first things Neville mentioned after the race. "You're just trying to improve each week and we keep dropping time," Neville said. "I'm really excited for state to drop some more time, and hopefully drop another six seconds. That'd be nice. It would be great time to do it. I'm really excited." In girls action, Kayla Shook qualified for the 400 final (1:00.29) and the 4x4 of Adriana Akers, Samantha Porter, Leah Dluzynski and Shook earned the second seed with a 4:04.67. Abby Reinhardt just missed in the high jump at 4 feet, 10 inches, the 4x2 was ninth in 1:46.91, 4x8 was 11th in 10:15.69, the 4x1 was 14th in 52.70 and Julia Reusch was 15th in the 300 hurdles (51.90). Contact Ryan Isley at sports@medina-gazette.com.