LUCKEY – Eastwood’s boys are striving to win their 14th straight league championship this season.
The Eagles return 28 lettermen – including 12 seniors and 10 juniors – when they won the Northern Buckeye
Conference title with 167 points.
Among the returnees is junior Devin Snowden, who won the conference championship in the long jump and the
300 hurdles.
The Eagles also won the 3,200, 400 and 1,600 relays in the NBC meet last season, and return three members
from each of those relay teams.
Eastwood has 65 athletes on its roster.
"I love the attitude of our guys," Eastwood coach Brian Sabo said. "You already see a
great work ethic. They’re giving great effort. There’s a lot of talent and it’s our job to pull some
more talent out of them. All is we ask is to give great effort.
"Our goal is to win the league. Every year, we want to get as many kids as we can to state. Our
district is so tough, that our goal is to just to survive and get in the top four for the regional and
then see how many kids we can get to state."
Eastwood also returns two All-Ohio individuals from last year’s state meet – junior Tim Hoodlebrink, who
was fourth in the 800; and Snowden, who was seventh in the 300 hurdles.
The top three finishers in the state 800 last season were seniors.
"(Hoodlebrink) was kind of a surprise last year," Sabo said. "We expect him to run the
same this year, even better. He’d love to break the school record which is 1:52. If he does that and is
able to get to state, he’ll have a chance to place. He’s already put more miles in than last year and
he’s already a little bit ahead of his workouts."
Hoodlebrink had a time of 1:55.09 at state last year.
Snowden had a time of 39.43 at state last year. The top two finishers in the event are eligible to return
this season.
"He’s been there before and we’d love for him to go back," Sabo said. "He just needs to
continue to improve."
Eastwood returns three members of its 1,600 relay team that finished fourth at state in 3:21.3 last
season and the 400 relay team that was sixth in 43.23.
The 1,600 returnees are Snowden, and seniors Gabe Fredericks and Joe Salinas.
The 400 returnees are Snowden, junior Brennan Seifert and senior Steven Bruning.
"We’d like to get as many relays as we can down (to state)," Sabo said. "We have guys back
and we already kids competing for spots on those relay teams. That’s the nice part of having 65 guys on
the team … You have competition for spots in all of the events."