Expressway Conference track meet (May 15th, 2001)
Portville clears another hurdle
CUBA — Following the action at the Wellsville Spring Day track and field invitational on Saturday, Wellsville coach Chris Brown said of Portville’s team title, “This may be the best team, up and down the lineup, that Portville has had in a long time.”
Fast forward to Tuesday night at Cuba-Rushford Central School, where the Panthers nearly doubled runner-up Franklinville 175-98 1/2 (complete team scoring, page X-X) in capturing their fourth Expressway Conference Meet crown since 1994 and their second in a row.
Meanwhile, Franklinville’s Crystal Waldron broke two meet records in winning the 100 (:12.6) and 200 (:26.7), while other meet standards fell in the 800 (Amy Ayers, Fillmore, 2:26.9), triple jump (Abby Grabow, Bolivar-Richburg, 34-1 1/2 ) and pole vault (Valerie Wolbert, Cuba-Rushford, 8-3).
Michele Gleason (1,500) and Amy DeBarbieri (400 hurdles) were the only individual winners for Portville, which also captured two of three relay events.
But as Portville coach Chuck Hild pointed out, “I told the girls when we were on the way over on the bus that we would not win this meet with first places. I said we would have to score as many competitors in as many events as possible.”
Consider it done.
The Panthers swept the top three spots in the 400 hurdles, as Hannah Tigh and Carly Woodhead followed DeBarbieri across the finish line.
Along with Gleason, Peggy Dudley and Kiley Hadzicki placed fourth and fifth.
“Those two events, along with our overall depth in the middle distance and distance events, were the deciding factors for us,” said Hild. “A lot of these girls have been very consistent in the work they’ve put in to get ready for this time of year.
“I’m fortunate this year in that I have a bunch of freshman who can compete in a number of different events, and that depth has really been a strength for us.”
Ayers also won the 3,000, Waldron made it a triple-win day by taking the 400, and Franklinville’s Amanda Kottwitz continued to dominate the throwing events with first-place tosses in the shot put and discus.

BOYS’ EXPRESSWAY MEET
Portville wins title
CUBA — Dan Martinez will probably remember his performance in Tuesday’s Expressway Conference Meet for a long time.
The Portville junior had never been able to clear any height higher than 9-6 in the pole vault.
Until now.
Joining teammate Keith Mott at the height of 11-0, the two gave Portville a one-two finish in the pole vault and, along with Brian Topor (6th, 8-6), gave the Panthers a 20-4 advantage over runner-up Cuba-Rushford in the chase for the team title.
Portville finished with 177 points, Cuba-Rushford with 155.
John Gordnier added wins in the 800 and 1,600, and Brian Blask took first in the 100 hurdles as Portville stretched its string of Expressway Meet titles to 10 years.
“It came down to the pole vault,” said Portville coach Larry Welty. “Danny really put it all together today.
“We really needed to score well in the pole vault because Cuba-Rushford outscored us, 20-1, in the triple jump.”
“I felt this was a great meet for us, because Cuba-Rushford really pushed us. They dominated in the field events, we came back in the running evens and had to score big in the pole vault.”
Chris Wight and Pat Daugherty placed 1-3 in the triple jump and 3-1 in the long jump while Brian Watson and Wight finished 1-2 in the high jump and Jeromie Feuchter won the shot put and discus for Cuba-Rushford.
The Rebels also got a 1-2 finish from Nick Pecone and Paul Ronan in the 3,200.
Franklinville’s Chris Waldron won the 100, 200 and 400 hurdles.

BOYS AT CUBA
100: Waldron (F) :11.1, Boeckmann (B-R), Hainey (W), 200: Waldron (F) :22.9, Blask (P), Boeckmann (B-R), 400: Boeckmann (B-R) :54.4, Hardgrove (P), Ricci (P), 800: Gordnier (P) 2:10.7, Chambers (C-R), Ricci (P), 1,600: Gordnier (P) 4:45, Chambers (C-R), Ronan (C-R), 3,200: Pecone (C-R) 10:33.8, Ronan (C-R), Bojanowski (F), 400 relay: Wellsville (Rainey, Schmidt, Black, Thomas) :46.5, 1,600 relay: Bolivar-Richburg (Boeckmann, Dunn, Thompkins, Richards) 3:41.1, 3,200 relay: Portville (Gordnier, Ricci, Elliott, Blask) 8:49.1, 100 hurdles: Blask (P) :15.9, Richards (B-R), Wesley (P), 400 hurdles: Waldron (F) :56.8, Blask (P), Boeckmann (B-R), long jump: Dougherty (C-R) 18-6 1/2 , Waldron (F), Wight (C-R), triple jump: Wight (C-R) 38-8 1/4 , Scmidt (W), Dougherty (C-R), high jump: Watson (C-R) 5-10, Wight (C-R), Blask (P), shot put: Feuchter (C-R) 47-2, Haught (P), Nesbit (C-R), discus: Feuchter (C-R) 143-8, Todd (P), Nesbit (C-R), pole vault: Mott (P) 11-0, Martinez (P), Rhodes (B-R)

GIRLS AT CUBA
100: Waldron (F) :12.6, Kania (W), Salada (P), 200: Waldron (F) :26.7, A. DeBarbieri (P), Oliver (B-R), 400: Waldron (F) 1:02.4, Oliver (B-R), Mallery (P), 800: Ayers (F) 2:26.9, Mallery (P), Dudley (P), 1,500: Gleason (P) 5:19.8, Miller (C-R), K.Hyer (W), 3,000: Ayers (F) 11:30.1, Gleason (P), E.Hyer (W), 400 relay: Bolivar-Richburg (Grabow, Oliver, Perrin, Morrison) :54.1, Portville, Wellsville, 1,600 relay: Portville (Tigh, Mallery, Ensell, DeBarbieri) 4:26.5, Bolivar-Richburg, Franklinville, 3,200 relay: Portville (Dudley, Gleason, Young, Mallery) 10:34, Wellsville Cuba-Rushford, 100 hurdles: Chaffee (W) :17, DeBarbieri (P), Stafford (F), 400 hurdles: DeBarbieri (P) 1:10.9, Tigh (P), Woodhead (P), long jump: Kania (W) 15-1 1/4 , Filkins (W), Davis (F), triple jump: Grabow (B-R) 34-1 1/2 , Filkins (W), Davis (F), high jump: Williams (C-R) 4-8, Hadzicki (P), Nenno (B-R), shot put: Kottwitz (F) 35-1 1/2 , Turner (P), Lupo (W), discus: Kottwitz (F) 85-11, Turner (P), Buckwalter (C-R), pole vault: Wolbert (C-R) 8-3, Davis (F), Hadzicki (P).