Merrillville’s Conwell makes his mark

Updated: May 11, 2011 10:18PM

MERRILLVILLE — Before last season, Rahim Conwell had different athletic aspirations at Merrillville.

Since the age of 7, the junior had spent his time on the football field. In fact, when he went out for the Pirates’ track program in 2010, he was merely looking for another form of conditioning. 

But then something happened along the way. Track became Conwell’s first passion. This season he didn’t go out for football because he put all of his energies into his new love.

“I fell in love with the sport and dropped football,” Conwell said.

That focus seems to have worked for Conwell, especially in the DAC boys meet on Wednesday. Conwell won both the 100- (10.95) and 200-meter dash (21.74) for the fourth-place Pirates. His 200 time set the conference record, while the 100 mark was just .09 off.

By the time his fourth event, the 1,600 relay, rolled around Conwell experienced cramping but kept pushing anyway.

“I just wanted to show a lot of heart for the younger guys, show that you’ve got to fight through it,” said Conwell, who tied with Chesterton’s Ryan Cutter for MVP of the running events.

While short distances were the trick for Conwell, the Vikings won 109-107 over runner-up Chesterton via longer efforts. Junior Ahmad Aljobeh won both the 1,600 (4:22.23) and the 3,200 (9:54.74) and his classmate Jordan Romanov took a first in the long jump with 21-9.5 distance. The Vikings, who last won in 2009, finished with five firsts.

“It felt good to bring it back because winning it my first year was a good start,” Romanov said. “ Last year was kind of a blow getting second.”

Not only did the Trojans receive big wins from Cutter (who ran the 800 in 1:58.07 and contributed victories in the 1,600 and 3,200 relays), but Justin Zosso tied for the field MVP with his 15-3 pole vault height. The Trojans edged Portage by .5 points. 

“If you just look at the seed sheets Chesterton and Portage were seeded to score a lot of points and we knew that we needed to have one of our better meets,” Vikings coach Brett Polizotto said.

The Indians received a spark in the field, when junior Joey Little blasted the shot put a distance of 56-1.75. That mark was well over the state qualifying distance in next week’s sectional.

“Everything was just clicking all week,” Little said. “It’s that time of the postseason when all the hard work pays off.”

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