Mason honors grad at meet

The Mason High School track and field programs took time Friday night during the Rod Russell Invitational at Mason to honor one of their own.

The school replaced the 1,600 run at the invitational with a true mile event and renamed it the Angela Bizzarri One-Mile Run. A mile is about 9.3 meters longer than the 1,600-meter run.

Bizzarri is a 2006 Mason graduate who won eight state championships as a cross country runner and track star in high school and three NCAA championships at Illinois where she was a nine-time All-American and six-time All-Big Ten performer.

"We're very honored and humbled that they would do something for her," Angela's father, Paul Bizzarri said. "She enjoyed her time here and she wished she could be here. She's in the middle of her season now and wanted to be here to be a part of it. But she's very honored to have them do that for her."

Both Mason teams won the team title. The Comets boys scored 92.5 points to best second-place Clayton Northmont's 81. The Mason girls scored 89 points to beat second-place Gahanna Lincoln's 78.5 points.

St. Ursula junior Annie Heffernan won the girls' Inaugural Angela Bizzarri One-Mile Run in 4:51.36, well ahead of second-place Michelle Mckinney of Eaton at 5:02.45. St. Xavier's Michael Vitucci (4:21.06) edged teammate Michael Hall (4:21.45) in the boys' inaugural mile run.

Only the top 10-12 entries were permitted to run in the first heat in the mile and each race started with runner introductions and music. The crowd was invited to line the outer lanes of the track to cheer the runners on.

"It was so exciting to see the crowd and all my friends cheering for me along the sidelines," Heffernan said. "They were all so excited beforehand, so it made it a lot better."

Heffernan was happy to run in the race named for Bizzarri, even if her time was not quite what she wanted.

"I think it's awesome," Heffernan said. "It's so amazing to have a race named after you from your home school. I think it's really awesome to know that I got to run in a race that is named after her, especially after all the great things that she's done.

"Because of all the excitement, I kind of took it out a little too fast. So I didn't do quite as well as I wanted to, but I'm still happy with it."

Vitucci and Hall each held the lead in the boys' race during the final lap.

"He was able to pass in Lane 1, which was good for him," Hall said of his teammate. "It kind of worked out where I ran outside and he passed inside. But we both finished 1-2. Can't be too upset with the results."

The boys' race got out on a slower pace than the girls in the face of a persistent wind that prevailed before the sun went down.

"Our plan was to hammer the mile and run as hard as we could and set a school record and a meet record if we could," Hall said. "That didn't work out. The wind and the elements bothered us a little bit, not to make an excuse. We went out slower than we thought we would."

Angela Bizzarri could not attend because she is in Seattle with her professional running team, Brooks Beast.

"She's trying to qualify for the USA Championships, she's in Seattle and she's traveling and competing," Angela's mother, Diane Bizzarri said. "She just joined the Brooks Beast, say around October. So she's been running with them and having a great time."

Winton Woods Boys Strong: Winton Woods set a meet record in the boys' 4x100 relay in 42.12 to highlight a strong showing by the Warriors. It was one of five meet records set Friday not counting the two new one-mile runs, but the only record set by a local school.

The team of Darrion Bryant, Darious Campbell, Chaz Lumpkin and Christian Lumpkin bested the previous record of 42.20 set by Huber Heights Wayne in 2009.

Chaz Lumpkin, Campbell, Lionell Mcconnell and Christian Lumpkin also raced to a win in the boys' 4x200 in 1:27.80 for Winton Woods.

Christian Lumpkin (10.93) and Campbell (11.03) finished first and second in the boys' 100-meter dash and Chaz Lumpkin won the 200-meter dash in 22.34.

Other Local Boys' Winners: Mason's Tom Clark won the boys' 3,200 run in 9:36.97 and teammate Reece Pontious won the long jump with a jump of 21-02 for the Comets.

Mason's 4x400 relay team won with a time of 3:22.78 in the final event to seal the team title.

John Vuotto was one of three individual winners for Sycamore, winning the boys' 110 hurdles in 14.13. Todd Lewis won the boys' discus event with a throw of 152-05 and Ben Pendergast won the pole vault with a vault of 13-0 for the Aviators.

Other Local Girls' Winners: Arbria Williams of Withrow won the girls' 100 hurdles in 14.44 and the 300 hurdles in 44.66. The Withrow 4x400 team won that event in 4:00.55 and the 4x200 team won in 1:41.46.

Chelsea Carpenter of Walnut Hills was also a double winner. She won the girls' shot put event with a throw of 39-06 and the discus with a throw of 133-0 for Walnut Hills.

Autumn Heath won the girls' 200-meter dash in 24.68.

Mason won the girls' 4x800 in 9:33.79, the only event win for the team champion.

"We don't have any superstars," Mason girls' coach Tony Affatato said. "We're a nickel-and-dime group. We just like to chip away and chip away."