Bay’s Michael Brajdic and Westlake’s Jack St. Marie make the turn in the 3200 last Saturday at the Comet Relays. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

Eagles finish third at Comet Relays
By Jim Horvath
Sports
Published April 29, 2009

While North Olmsted was busy taking third in the team standings, several area boys were making their mark at the 54th Comet Relays last Saturday at Amherst’s Richard Cooley Track.

The Eagles led the way, scoring 48 points to finish behind first-place Medina (92½) and runner-up Brunswick (67).

North Olmsted got one first-place finish as the long jump relay of Josh Price, Rodney Dukes and Sam Ibrahim scored a 59-4 to easily get past Brunswick’s 58-11½. Price had the third-best leap with a 20-8.

Jordan Hoppel finished second in the 100 with a time of 11.04, while Price took third in both the 300 hurdles (40.13) and the 110 hurdles (15.20). Danny Bullard scored points in the distance events, taking sixth in the 1600 with a time of 4:40.49 and seventh in the 3200 with a 9:54.16.

In the relay events, the Eagles took fourth in the 400 as Dukes, Pat Tomko, Phil Tomko and Hoppel ran a 44.56. The shuttle hurdles relay of Tom DiMarino, Alex Ramos, Matt Taylor and Price took fourth as well with a time of 1:07.16.

North Olmsted’s 1600 relay was sixth with a 3:24.20.

Bay, which took second in the Division II standings behind Avon, got a pair of second-place finishes in the distance events.

Sophomore Michael Brajdic led the charge with a 9:30.37 in the 3200. He was beat out for first by the record-setting performance of Medina’s Donny Roys, who turned in a 9:15.48 to break the previous best mark of 9:20.0. That time was run back in 1985 by Firelands’ Mike Beetler.

The Rockets’ distance medley relay of Jordan Hawkins, Alex Meyers, Eric Linhart and Brajdic turned in a time of 10:48.26. They were right on the heels of first-place Mentor, which had a time of 10:46.42.

Rocky River, which took third in the small-school division, got a strong second-place finish from the pole vault relay of Dave Kolakowski, Wes Ware and Tim Gibbons. The trio turned in a score of 39-6, while first-place Amherst scored a 41-6. Kolakowski had the second-best vault with his 14-6, second only to Amherst’s Adam Kalivoda (15-0).

Tommy Eldridge took sixth for the Pirates in the 3200 with a time of 9:53.39. He also took eighth in the 1600 with a time of  4:42.04.

Westlake’s best finish on the day came in the 1600 relay as the Demons’ Mason Meek, Rory Kelly, Sean Escolas and Hamed Abu Hamdeh took fifth with a time of 3:32.94.

The Demons also took seventh in the shuttle hurdles with a time of 1:08.68, while River was right behind in eighth with a 1:09.18. Abu Hamdeh was seventh in the 100 with a time of  11.51, while Elias Chbeir was sixth in the shot put with a 47-11¼.