| Eastwood aiming for title repeat (08-16-12) |
 |
 |
 |
| Written by KEVIN GORDON Sentinel Assistant Sports Editor | ||
| Thursday, 16 August 2012 09:51 | ||
Now that the drought is over, the Eagles are striving for back-to-back league titles after going a decade between championships. Eastwood returns six letter winners from last season, including five who earned All-Northern Buckeye Conference honors. Among the returnees are defending NBC champion and runner of the year Maddie Jackson, and first-team All-NBC performer Meagan Kaminski. Kaminski was third in the NBC meet last season. Jackson is a junior, while Kaminski is a sophomore. Eastwood's 2001 league title came in the Suburban Lakes League. "We're looking to win the league again," Kaminski said. "We were so pumped up by how we did last year that it made us want to come out and run this summer. Everyone was willing to come out this summer and get in shape." Three other Eagles who earned all-conference honors return - second-team pick McKayla Phillips, and honorable-mention honorees Sierra Corns and Emily Zielinski. Phillips was eighth in the NBC meet, while Corns was 16th and Zielinski was 20th. Phillips and Zielinski are juniors, and Corns is a sophomore. The other returning letter winner is junior Casey Twining. She finished 26th in the NBC meet as a hip injury prevented her from finishing significantly higher in the that meet. The top seven finishers in the NBC meet are first-team, finishers 8-14 are second-team and finishers 15-21 are honorable mention. Eastwood has 13 runners in all - one senior, five juniors, five sophomores and two freshmen. "Winning the league is always your goal, but this year, when you're repeating, it becomes a stronger goal," said Eagle coach Richard Morgan, who is in his 22nd season. "It's a good group of kids. They're working hard and they've had a good attitude. We have a lot of girls. A lot of them are unproven, but we expect them to move up." Although the Eagles have a strong team returning, they must replace the graduated Madison Renolett, who finished fourth in the NBC last fall. "Losing her is huge, not only as a runner, but her leadership," Morgan said. "She always had everyone together and focused. We have to take care of finding leadership to replace her." Jackson and Kaminski will be the team's top two runners, and both are striving to qualify for the Division II state meet. They were regional qualifiers last season, finishing 26th and 31st, respectively. As a team last season, Eastwood was third in the district and 10th in the regional. "You always want to go farther than you did the previous year. State is a goal for both of us," Jackson said. The Eagles are excited about the season after their summer conditioning, organized by D.J. Michel and Corey Johnson. The team ran an average of 30-50 miles per week as it ran Monday through Friday, starting in early June. "We're definitely in better shape right now than we were at this point and that's exciting," Jackson said. "We had a really good turnout. Everyone's in good shape. We're excited about the season." Michel and Johnson both ran cross country and track at Eastwood, and both are assistant coaches for the track program. They remain avid runners. "We had a good summer," Morgan said. "Corey and D.J. really helped us out a lot. They do a good job of getting kids involved. Not everyone ran every day, but we had a really good turnout overall. The kids have run a lot of miles this summer. They're coming into the season in pretty good shape." |
||
| Last Updated on Thursday, 16 August 2012 09:59 |
Front Page Stories
| BG students face extra fee 06/19/2013 | MARIE THOMAS BAIRD, Sentinel Education Editor  The Bowling Green school district will add pay to participate this fall to all o [ ... ] |
Horizon enters new stage 06/19/2013 | DAVID DUPONT, Sentinel Arts & Entertainment Editor  Horizon youth theater instructor Duffee Maddox (left) and students (from left) Yelia X [ ... ] | Other Front Page Articles | ||
