Track and Field: Firelands boys and girls repeat as LCL champs

HENRIETTA TWP. — Depth carried the Firelands boys and girls teams to title defenses Thursday at the sixth Lorain County League track and field championships.The Firelands boys held off Keystone 185.5-169 for their third straight title. The Falcons amassed six first-place finishes while adding six seconds and five thirds at the two-day meet that kicked off Tuesday.Frontline strength kept Keystone close as it chalked up eight firsts, two seconds and four thirds.The Firelands girls won their fourth straight league title, outdistancing Oberlin 201-118. Firelands' depth was overwhelming as it totaled five firsts, 11 seconds and six thirds.Oberlin had seven firsts and two thirds.Senior Colton Clough was the catalyst for the Firelands boys as he led the way with the three titles and a runner-up finish.Clough won the 400 in a meet-record 49.02 and followed with his first sub-22-second effort in winning the 200 in 21.82. He opened the meet with a surprise second in the 100 (11.00) as the No. 4 seed.Clough capped the day by anchoring the winning 1,600 relay (3:29.23) that included Andrew Pawlak, Dane Vanderpool and Ayden Fortner."What made this special was that second place in the 100," he said. "I wasn't expecting that in the 100. I wasn't expecting to PR and get second place. To go out there after that 100 and keep riding that momentum and just get win after win after win with short time in between and drop a big 200 PR, it was phenomenal. My previous best there was 22.19. I'm normally not one who leads off the turn. When I led off the turn, I knew someone was coming and I had to push. I pushed hard and ran my race. "I'm very, very happy with that. It's great to run good times in events back-to-back-to-back to prepare us for districts and for everything that's coming up. From here on out it's let's make the state meet. It's definitely not going to be easy, but it's doable. It's nice to honor God with this opportunity to honor the memory of my mom."Firelands sophomore Brett Beury shattered his 2025 discus meet record of 156 feet, 5 inches with a winning toss of 172-1. Three of Beury's six attempts cleared 170 feet. "The wind today was a little weird. I've never had wind like this," he said. "I've been working on several things. It was rough at the start here. My first three throws were rough. My focus right now as far as technique is to try and get more stretch with my body. Keep it tighter just so at the finish it's all good."Keystone was led by the stellar efforts of senior Eli McConoughey, who contributed four victories, three as an individual.He won the 1,600 in a meet-record 4:27.60. He also won the 3,200 Tuesday in a meet-record 9:33.08 after anchoring the winning 3,200 relay (8:14.87) that included his brother, Sam, a sophomore, along with senior Craig Stroud and sophomore Jamie Yuronich.Eli McConoughey capped Thursday by winning the 800 with his first sub-two-minute (1:57.25).A year ago he was a member of the winning 3,200 relay (8:04) but struggled with his individual events, taking third in the 1,600 (4:35.65) and fourth in the 800 (2:01.74)."I'm very fortunate to be able to come out here and compete," he said. "It's amazing to see all the hard work pay off. I ran twice as many miles as I did last year. Historically in the postseason I haven't really performed. Coming here today and doing something I haven't done before is just amazing."The Firelands boys led Keystone 157.5-156 through 15 of the 17 events after Eli and Sam McConoughey went 1-2 in the 800."Eli was so disappointed last year because it didn't go the way he wanted," said Keystone coach Jeff Holzhauer. "He worked hard and put in the time and wasn't getting the results he wanted. He kept plugging along. "Sometimes distance kids just need another year of training. I don't think even he believed that he could do what he did today. He was in tears after the 800 because he's put in so much work. That's why we coach. He's a student of the sport, I couldn't be more proud of him."Firelands outscored Keystone 28-13 in the final two events to pull away."Keystone is good," Firelands coach Steve Lias said. "We knew we were going to have our hands full. Jeff does a great job. He got all out of his kids that he possibly could."I'm proud the way our kids reacted to it and came through when they needed to.""I don't think we could have done any better," said Holzhauer. "Sometimes you run out of bullets. Firelands' depth I knew was going to be a big problem. We just don't have the depth."Sophomore Natalie Smith was a triple winner for the Firelands girls. She defended her title in the 800 in a meet-record 2:24.31 after winning the 1,600 (5:38.31). On Tuesday she teamed with Dilynn Copley, Gianna Camera and Diem Vanderpool to defend Firelands' title in the 3,200 relay (10:36.06).Smith's sister, Audrey, a senior, was also a major contributor. She was second in the 400 (59.78), fourth in the 200 (27.32) and a member of the second-place 800 (1:44.41) and 1,600 (4:22.71) relays."Over the last couple of years we've developed so many friendships on this team," said Audrey Smith. "We've just been there for each other. It's very cool. I'm getting emotional. I'm going to miss this team a lot. It's just the friendships and the bonds. That's how we keep winning. Just this love for each other."Mr. Lias had a talk with the seniors before the meet. He encouraged us to soak it all in."The Firelands girls also got a pair of field wins. A first-year pole vaulter, junior Stella Frederick tied a meet record with 9-0. Senior Teaghan Jasinski defended her high jump title with a record-tying 5-3.Oberlin senior Olivia Hudson defended her titles in the 400 (57.89) and 200 (25.73). She also anchored the winning 800 relay (1:42.45) that included Alyssa Webb, Aubrey Abeyta and Cayman Noble. "Having this meet kind of sets the tone for the rest of them," said Hudson. "We all performed well and we won a lot of things, which is exciting. It's definitely good to see this as the districts, regionals and state are coming. It's exciting looking at the rest of the season and seeing that we're going to be in more positions where we can win the meet as a whole. It's a fun team experience."Oberlin was Division IV state indoor champ the past two winters and Division III outdoor state runner-up last spring."I'm definitely super motivated," said Hudson. "To be here with my friends for four years is exciting. This sport is about the sport but it is also about the people you are surrounded with and all my friends. I'm definitely excited."Brookside senior Avery Davis is the 2024 Division II state champ for the 300 hurdles and a two-time state qualifier for the 100 hurdles. She hadn't won a conference title because she was chasing hurdlers like Firelands' Ariannah Floyd (2025 grad) and Black River's Olivia Todd (2024 grad).Davis finally got her day in the sun at conference as she won the 100 hurdles (15.04) and 300 hurdles (45.40)."I'm pretty proud of today," she said. "My biggest goal for the 100 hurdles was just getting a clean race. A couple ones in the past haven't been so clean. For the 300 hurdles I did everything I wanted to execute besides landing wrong and having some stutters here and there. I'm still happy with the race."I'm pretty proud of what I've accomplished this year. The time is literally now. I just have to execute and run my butt off every single race."Contact Paul Heyse at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.BOYSTEAM SCORES1. Firelands, 185.5; 2. Keystone, 169; 3. Brookside, 96.5; 4. Wellington, 71; 5. Black River, 57; 6. Columbia, 39; 7. Clearview, 18; 8. Oberlin, 9100 METERS: 1. Wyatt McKee (Keystone), 10.91; 2. Colton Clough (Firelands), 11.00; 3. Andrew Pawlak (Firelands), 11.01; 4. Kamron Roberts (Brookside), 11.13200: 1. Clough (Firelands), 21.82; 2. Pawlak (Firelands), 22.49; 3. Jake Skor (Columbia), 22.51; 4. McKee (Keystone), 22.64400: 1. Clough (Firelands), 49.02 (MEET RECORD, old record 49.27 set in 2024 by Oberlin's Evan Hudson); 2. Colton Cowling (Keystone), 50.33; 3. Ayden Fortner (Firelands), 51.23; 4. Austin Pamer (Brookside), 51.85800: 1. Eli McConoughey (Keystone), 1:57.25; 2. Sam McConoughey (Keystone), 1:59.48; 3. Noah Orgel (Black River), 1:59.94; 4. Dane Vanderpool (Firelands), 2:01.721,600: 1. Eli McConoughey (Keystone), 4:27.60 (MEET RECORD, old record 4:30.56 set in 2022 by Columbia's Sam Sikorski); 2. Connor Rhein (Black River), 4:28.57; 3. Jamie Yuronich (Keystone), 4:31.02; 4. Carter Woods (Firelands), 4:47.053,200: 1. Eli McConoughey (Keystone), 9:33.08 (MEET RECORD, old record 9:57.23 set in 2024 by Keystone's Michael Gale); 2. Rhein (Black River), 9:36.72; 3. Yuronich (Keystone), 9:45.37; 4. Woods (Firelands), 10:40.75110 HURDLES: 1. Ari Wreyford (Wellington), 15.70; 2. Brody Born (Firelands), 15.78; 3. Alex Duke (Firelands), 15.79; 4. Blake Murner (Wellington), 16.09300 HURDLES: 1. Elijah Lopez (Brookside), 40.18; 2. Duke (Firelands), 41.32; 3. Born (Firelands), 41.34; 4. Wreyford (Wellington), 41.45400 RELAY: 1. Brookside (Parker Gabet, Roberts, Dominick Juchnik, Colton Casey), 43.97; 2. Columbia, 44.83; 3. Firelands, 44.86; 4. Keystone, 45.57800 RELAY: 1. Firelands (Aiden Simms, Duke, Fortner, Pawlak), 1:30.02 (MEET RECORD, old record 1:30.38 set in 2025 by Keystone); 2. Brookside, 1:31.63; 3. Columbia, 1:34.23; 4. Keystone, 1:35.831,600 RELAY: 1. Firelands (Pawlak, Vanderpool, Fortner, Clough), 3:29.23; 2. Black River, 3:32.75; 3. Brookside, 3:39.64; 4. Keystone, 3:42.62 DISCUS: 1. Brett Beury (Firelands), 172-1 (MEET RECORD, old record 156-5 set in 2025 by Beury); 2. Jake Miller (Wellington), 132-10; 3. Luke Devore (Keystone), 127-9; 4. Wilson Schmucker (Wellington), 123-4LONG JUMP: 1. Liam Goran (Keystone), 21-4.5; 2. Germell Wilson (Clearview), 20-9.5; 3. Casey (Brookside), 20-1.25; 4. Duke (Firelands), 19-4.75GIRLSTEAM SCORES1. Firelands, 201; 2. Oberlin, 118; 3. Brookside, 94.5; 4. Black River, 77; 5. Wellington, 72; 6. Keystone, 64.5; 7. Columbia, 24; 8. Clearview, 2100: 1. Alyssa Webb (Oberlin), 12.29 (MEET RECORD, old record 12.44 set in 2025 by Webb); 2. London Marsinick (Firelands), 12.48; 3. Octavia Gonzalez (Brookside), 12.90; 4. Cayman Noble (Oberlin), 13.03200: 1. Olivia Hudson (Oberlin), 25.73; 2. Marsinick (Firelands), 26.17; 3. Webb (Oberlin), 26.24; 4. Audrey Smith (Firelands), 27.32400: 1. Hudson (Oberlin), 57.89; 2. Audrey Smith (Firelands), 59.78; 3. Hailey Petzak (Oberlin), 1:01.09; 4. Jordyn Copley (Firelands), 1:03.38 800: 1. Natalie Smith (Firelands), 2:24.31 (MEET RECORD, old record 2:25.31 set in 2021 by Columbia's Madeleine Finton); 2. Dilynn Copley (Firelands), 2:32.71; 3. Khloe Jennings (Brookside), 2:32.88; 4. Kachina Smith (Oberlin), 2:35.691,600: 1. Natalie Smith (Firelands), 5:38.31; 2. Dilynn Copley (Firelands), 5:43.61; 3. Jennings (Brookside), 5:50.55; 4. Amme Wilson (Keystone), 5:52.783,200: 1. Amme Wilson (Keystone), 12:46.47; 2. Lauren Vannatter (Wellington), 13:03.76; 3. Natalie Smith (Firelands), 13:25.40; 4. Dilynn Copley (Firelands), 13:40.81 100 HURDLES: 1. Avery Davis (Brookside), 15.04; 2. Addison Schrader (Firelands), 15.62; 3. Emerson Zidar (Firelands), 16.48; 4. Lilly Keely (Brookside), 18.75300 HURDLES: 1. Davis (Brookside), 45.40 2. Gonzalez (Brookside), 47.58; 3. Zidar (Firelands), 47.62; 4. Schrader (Firelands), 51.82400 RELAY: 1. Oberlin (De'Shyana Freeman, Noble, Aubrey Abeyta, Webb), 49.72; 2. Firelands, 50.50; 3. Black River, 52.19; 4. Keystone, 53.79800 RELAY: 1. Oberlin (Webb, Abeyta, Noble, Hudson), 1:42.45; 2. Firelands, 1:44.41; 3. Black River, 1:52.56; 4. Keystone, 1:55.281,600 RELAY: 1. Oberlin (Abeyta, Freeman, Petzak, Hudson), 4:07.12; 2. Firelands, 4:22.71; 3. Black River, 4:31.80; 4. Brookside, 4:40.64SHOT PUT: 1. Cailynn Demagall (Columbia), 30-7.5; 2. Emma Wilson (Keystone), 29-10; 3. Jana Vala (Firelands), 29-2.25; 4. Shelby Gallion (Wellington), 28-9.75HIGH JUMP: 1. Teaghan Jasinski (Firelands), 5-3 (TIES MEET RECORD set in 2025 by Jasinski); 2. Everleigh Robinson (Firelands), 4-8; 3. Demagall (Columbia), 4-8; 4. Morgan Kubitz (Black River), 4-6POLE VAULT: 1. Stella Frederick (Firelands), 9-0 (TIES MEET RECORD, record first set in 2022 by Keystone's Andrea Whitt); 2. Bella Diaz (Brookside), 8-9; 3. Morgan Parker (Firelands), 8-9; 4. Kalynne Pickering (Wellington), 8-0