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Salem boys speed to 10th straight crown

EAST PALESTINE — Winning is the only thing the Salem boys track team knows.

The Quakers ran away with their 10th straight team title Tuesday at the 115th annual Columbiana County Track and Field Meet.

“Coach Motz said it would be the 62nd county title for Salem,” Salem junior Jackson Corbisello said. “So many people before us ran so well. It’s our responsibility to do the same.”

Salem has won 14 of the last 15 county titles.

“The last time we lost I was in the first grade,” Corbisello said. “I’ve never lost a county meet. It shows a lot of the work we do pays off.”

The Quakers scored 168 1/2 points, the third most in county history. Crestview had its highest showing ever in second with 111 points.

Salem scored seven races, including all the distance events at Reid Stadium.

“We got some pretty solid performances,” Salem boys coach Rob Motz said. “We like to have kids repeat and Quinlan Rumsey, Hunter Christopher and Zach Murray were able to do that.”

Rumsey repeated as the high-point award winner in the running events. He repeated in the 400-meter dash (51.14 seconds) and ran on the winning 1600 relay team (3:30.27) with Turner Johnson, Chase Ackerman and Seth Ameduri and the 3200 relay team (8:45.78) with Corbisello, Trey Double and Hunter Christopher. Rumsey also was second in the 200 dash.

Also successfully defending their county titles for the Quakers were Murray in the 110 hurdles (16.02) and Christopher in the 3200 run (10:20.17).

Trey Double won the 1600 run (4:47.62) and Corbisello beat out Double in the 800 run (2:03.98).

“It was between him and I,” Corbisello said. “We expected to go 1-2, it was just which Quaker would win it. I got him today. This is the tiebreaker. I’ve got him 2-1. It’s friendly competition.”

Salem had a 14-point lead on Crestview until the 1600 run.

“Our one-two in the mile and 800 were huge for us,” Motz said. The Quakers also made it one-two in the 3200 run.

“It’s been really cold all year,” Corbisello said. “We’re starting to hit our times later in the year. Today was perfect.”

It also was a near perfect day for Crestview, which had six runners.

Crestview junior Dominic Perry took high-point honors in the field events a third straight year. He won the shot put (49-7 1/2) a third time and the discus (136-11) a second year in row.

Junior Dylan Huff had his best day as a three-time winner.

He won the long jump with a school-record 21-feet-11 1/2. It was only the third time he long jumped and his previous best was 19-9. He also smashed the school record of 21-2 set by Gary Crook at the 1978 Tri-County League Meet at Stanton.

Huff also won the 200 dash (23.28) and joined Luke Wickline, Ethan Powell and Danny Moore on the winning 400 relay team (44.36).

Moore, Powell, Mitch Lindsay and Jayce Meredith also won the 800 relay (1:32.43).

“Crestview has some good relays and their long jumper had a 2 foot PR,” Motz said. “We ran what we thought we would have to do to beat them. They just performed.”

Now Salem is gearing up for the Northeastern Buckeye Conference Meet next week.

“We think we’re in a pretty good position to win the conference,” Motz said. “That’s our No. 1 priority. Then it’s getting kids rested and in the best position to get to Jesse O (for the state meet).”

Meet notes

• Wellsville sophomore Justin Wright won his second straight 100 dash title (11.06). He suffered a groin injury, feeling it about three-quarters of the way through the race.

Wright posted the top time in the 200 dash in the preliminaries (22.69), but did not run in the finals. He will be rested with the district meet just over two weeks away.

• Lisbon senior Seth Stokes won high jump (6-4) for a third straight year.

• Columbiana sophomore Joey Bable won the 300 hurdles (42.32).

“The Columbiana kid ran well in the 300s. We didn’t expect that,” Motz said.

• The Crestview boys finished third three times recently, including last year.

New Waterford won a county title in 1942 before the Crestview school district was established.

• Salem outscored Crestview 54-3 in the three individual distance races.

• Salem will host Canton South and Carrollton on Thursday before taking the weekend off for the prom.

The Quakers will host West Branch on Thursday and will entertain the Northeastern Buckeye Conference Meet on May 11.

“The conference is usually stronger than our district,” Motz said. “The boys are kind of down, but the girls meet is going to be amazing.”

• Out of the 115 county meets, the Salem boys have won 62 times and finished second 26 others.

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