Spring Sports Preview: Century Looks as the Team to Beat in Boys Track

Century looks to be strong in boys track as they won the indoor county, region and Class 2A title this year.

Century

The Knights look strong on the track with Julian Woods, Josh Titus and Nick Pezza.

Woods, a hurdler is a sophomore. Titus, a sprinter and Pezza, distance are seniors.

Coach Ryan Melhorn is also counting on points from George Rought, Ryan Fenton, Jeff Kimble, Nate Reeser and Giovanni Fitch.

Century is the defending county champion.

Liberty

Liberty coach Bobby Ward welcomes the largest team in school history.

"Biggest team in school history (62) after one of the smallest teams I have coached indoors (around 23). Over two-thirds are freshman and sophomores, but some leaders in the senior class have stepped up to start the outdoor season," said Ward, who is starting his ninth year as coach of the Lions.

The top returning athletes for the Lions are James Fencil, distance runnners Kyle Hawkins, Greg Rinehart and Jimmy Filomena. Brett Sussman looks to add depth to the distance squad already running faster then he did last year in his freshman campaign.

Ward says Fencil is well ahead of where he was at this time last year.

Field events should be a strength for Liberty. Matt Thompson (qualified for states in TJ), Kenny Wise (second indoors in regionals in pole vault), Rob Pangborn (second returner in discus in county), Nick Corprew (third indoors in county in high jump), PJ Van Slyke (fifth returner in triple jump in Region) along with a few others. Josh Carroll continues to impress on the sprints squad as only a sophomore.

"Team has 41 freshman and sophomores on it (likely bigger then most teams have total), and could not only be a better team then indoors (who finished fourth), but should continue to get better for the next couple years," said Ward.

The Lions were fourth in the county meet last year. Ward feels Century is the team to beat in the county this year.

Other names that will appear in meet results are Mac George, Mike Sadler, Mike Ginther, John Johnson, Max Milewski, Dan Wesloh, Jason Bounds, Rob Pangborn, Kevin Selby, Matt Thompson, Justin Higgs, Kenny Wise, Kyle Baker, Kyle Johnson, Jason Wolf, Sean Dillon, Tyler Pollard, Brett Sussman and Tony Rettaliata.

Asked about goals for the Spring, Ward said, "A young team that will improve quickly. They are built to be good for a few years, but nobody says they can’t start a little earlier. They also want to qualify a bunch for states, including at least three out of our four relay teams."

South Carroll

The Cavaliers will look to improve on their seventh place finish in the county meet last year for coach Rob Pennington.

Leading the way for South Carroll are Ethan McBryde, Matt Adcock, Kevin Connor and Marco Sumpter.

"Our goal this year is to improve over last year and advance as many kids as possible to the state meet in May. We have a lot of inexperience that will need to be developed over the season," said Pennington, who is entering his 20th season as coach.