Buckeye boys finish sixth at Bulldog Relays as distance medley relay rewrites school record

Buckeye’s boys track and field team battled through a rainy, stormy Saturday and still came away with one of its biggest highlights of the season. The Bucks finished sixth out of eight teams with 66 points at the Olmsted Falls Bulldog Relays, and the headliner was impossible to miss. Buckeye’s distance medley relay team of Joe Stahl, Nolan Rieth, Brady Salazar and Dimitry Pshonyak raced to first place in 10:40.01, smashing the school record by 30 seconds in a competitive meet at Olmsted Falls.

That record-setting effort gave Buckeye a signature moment in tough conditions. With thunderstorms in the area and wind adding another layer of difficulty, the Bucks still found a way to produce across the track and in the field. The distance crew was not done there, either. Stahl, Rieth, Paul Abbott and Pshonyak teamed up in the 4x800 relay and placed third in 8:34.39, adding another strong distance result to the team score.

Buckeye also put together a productive day in the field events, led by a runner-up finish in the shot put relay. Denis Shevchenko delivered a top throw of 46 feet, 3 inches, Jake Bally-Freiberg added 38 feet, 6 inches, and Kyle Landes contributed 34 feet, 9 inches as the trio earned second place. In the high jump relay, Brady Salazar and Andy Kost each cleared 5 feet, 3 inches, while Cael Miller went 5-0 as Buckeye took third. Those relay events helped the Bucks stay in the mix throughout the meet.

On the track, Brayden Bonnett turned in one of the top individual performances of the day, taking third in the 100-meter dash in 11.21 seconds. Buckeye’s sprint relay group of Eddie Hondroudakis, Cael Miller, Brady Salazar and Bonnett also posted a time of 1:32.49 in the 4x200 relay. Salazar’s name showed up all over the results sheet, a sign of just how much ground he covered for the Bucks between relays and field events.

For Buckeye, the day was about more than placement. Sixth place and 66 points told part of the story, but the bigger takeaway came from the way the Bucks kept producing in bad weather and left with a school record, a relay title and multiple top-three finishes. When a record falls by 30 seconds, it does more than tweak the history book, it grabs everyone’s attention. That is exactly what Buckeye’s distance medley team did Saturday in Olmsted Falls.