Shawnee track a staple for other sports, too

Shawnee has roughly 100 boys and girls on the track team this spring, which makes for an imposing sight when they show up for meets on multiple buses. But while he’s happy to have such a sizable turnout, coach Mike Garberich knows most of his athletes are competing only to get better in their primary sports — and he’s OK with that.

“We tell them, ‘No matter what other sport you play, you can get stronger, you can get faster, you can jump higher, you can do anything you need to do by coming out for track,’ ” he said.

The high school cross country team has taken that to heart. Coach Brian DeSantis led the boys to their seventh straight trip to the state and the girls to their third consecutive appearance last fall, and he’s working with virtually the same 32 runners as the distance coach in track.

Senior Rebecca Penrose, juniors Grace Holmes and Miah DeSantis (the coach’s daughter) and freshman Olivia Warax are among the girls excelling in both sports.

Penrose is solid in the long jump, 400 and 800 and is one of two returnees on the 4x800 relay team that qualified for state last year.

Holmes also is running a leg on that unit again and won the 1600-meter run at the 16-team Graham Invitational on Thursday, leading the girls to a third-place finish. Sophomore Hannah Schartz won high jump at Graham with a leap of 5-0.

Warax and DeSantis will fill out the 4x800 relay, although senior Kenzie Adrian subbed for DeSantis, who was out sick, at Graham and helped the unit to a second-place showing.

Brian DeSantis, who has coached cross country and the distance runners in track almost continuously since 2001, likes the depth on the girls side and also how the group has adopted a Three Musketeers approach: All for one and one for all.

“We have unbelievable team cohesion that we haven’t seen in a few years,” DeSantis said. “They want to run for each other. It’s not about them. When you have that, you have faster times and more success — even if you have less talent.

“Our girls have been a struggle the past few years. But with what we have now, I’ve never had more fun coaching a group in over a decade.”

Penrose said she and her fellow seniors are conscious of being role models for the younger runners and it’s paying off.

“I feel our culture is a lot stronger this year. The girls are really fighting for each other and really want it — not just individually, but for the team,” she said. “And that attitude and positivity really help.”

Senior Joel Rodgers, who won the 3200 at the Cedarville Invitational last week, sophomores Will Geist and Keith Kaiser and senior Josh Hayes make up the core of the boys distance brigade. But the strength of the team is in the sprints.

“This is the best group we’ve had in a long time,” said assistant Joe Vanuch, a former Shawnee head track coach who is now in charge of the sprinters. “We’ve got five kids who run (the 100 meters) under 12 seconds. We’re not blazing, but we’re fast.”

Juniors Matt Jarzab, Jack McCrory and Cyrus Cooper and freshman Robbie Glass won the 4x200 relay at Graham. Cooper also was first in the 300 hurdles, leading the boys to a second-place finish.

Juniors Donnie Finch and Hayden Lawhorn also are strong in the sprints, while junior Billy Lord contributes in the hurdles.

“There’s a lot of competition for spots,” Vanuch said. “We didn’t have that last year.”

He also has seen an unprecedented commitment from the group.

“I’ve coached football here before, and track is as important as football,” he said. “We tell them, ‘You can’t miss (practice).’ And they’ve bought in.

“We’ve got a lot of football players running in large numbers. Soccer players, too. I always emphasize that track is going to make you faster for whatever other sport you play. Then, what happens is, they fall in love with track.”

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