Sat Mar 13 2010
by Steve Batko
Correspondent
Tallmadge senior Amanda Bennett has been there and done that.
Bennett qualified for four events at a Division II regional track and field meet, which concluded May 30 at Ravenna High School.
Bennett helped the Blue Devils to an 11th-place regional finish with 21 points.
At regionals, the top four finishers in each event advance to the state meet, which was scheduled to take place June 5 and 6 at The Ohio State University's Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in Columbus.
Results were not available at press time.
Bennett qualified after capturing regional championships in the high jump and the long jump.
"The girls did pretty well at regionals and Amanda led us," said Tallmadge head coach Mike Srodawa.
The coach was thrilled with Bennett's double regional titles. She won the high jump at 5 feet, 4 inches.
Katie Defer (Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy) reached 5-3, along with Liz Ziemski (Jefferson), a two-time state qualifier.
In the long jump, Bennett reached 17-1.25 as she became a state qualifier for the second year in a row along with runner-up Ziemski (16-9.5 feet).
Bennett also beat several other strong athletes on her way to the state meet.
This list included Rachael Adamic (Chardon Notre Dame Cathedral Latin), Garrettsville Garfield's Leslie Wyatt and Youngstown Cardinal Mooney's Elena Andino-espar. It was Bennett's third regional in the long jump as she was a regional champion as a freshman.
This season, Bennett has the third best high jump in the area this season with a school record of 5-7 in a dual meet at Copley.
Division I leapers ahead of Bennett were Taylor Burke (Medina) at 5-10, Westlake's Kalpana Beach (5-8) and Twinsburg's Brittani Reid (5-7).
Defer has reached 5-5 in the regular season while Bennett and Brandy Kelley, of Doylestown Chippewa, were the top regional jumpers at 5-4. Napoleon's Kendall Homan was expected to challenge for a state title in the long jump.
The Lady Blue Devils' 400- and 800-meter relays had some problems at the Ravenna regionals.
A dropped baton took place in the 800 relay and in the 400 relay, a runner fell into the Devils' lane.
Officials allowed Tallmadge to rerun the race by themselves. The relay ran ninth and missed advancing by .05 of a second (51.65).
Making up the 400 relay was junior Karley DeLorenzo, Bennett, freshman Peyton Patrick and sophomore Audrey Crawford. The 800 relay had Patrick, DeLorenzo, Bennett and sophomore Jen Brumbaugh.
Freshman Summer Scanlon placed eighth in the pole vault at 8 feet, which is the same height as senior Becky Judeh. As it turned out, 9 feet qualified for states.
Judeh became a rare three-time state qualifier in the pole-vault competition.
In addition, talented sophomore Jackie Koza finished 10th overall in the 800 with a clocking of 2 minutes, 26.03 seconds.
E-mail: stowsports@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-686-3914
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