Thanks to our continued partnership with Univest Financial, SuburbanOneSports.com will once again recognize a male and female featured athlete each week. The recognition is given to seniors of high character who are students in good standing that have made significant contributions to their teams or who have overcome adversity. Selections are based on nominations received from coaches, athletic directors and administrators.
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Female Athlete (Oct. 3)
Lanae Carrington hadn’t actually planned on running cross country her senior year. A standout indoor and outdoor track athlete, Carrington had dropped cross country after her sophomore season in order to focus on track. But knowing how young this year’s Harry S Truman girls’ cross country team was going to be, coach MJ Powlowicz—also an assistant coach on the girls’ track and field team—approached Carrington in the spring asking her to consider coming back. Carrington agreed to return to cross country, primarily as a way to remain in shape for track season. “I usually do summer track with AAU, so I didn’t want to get right into cross country,” she said. “I wanted to take my last two last years to train on my own instead of running cross country. When I started back this year, I looked at it as a way to stay in shape, see where this takes me. Honestly, when I first started the workouts, I wasn’t enjoying it. After two years of straight track, it wasn’t easy to get back in the groove of running long distances on grass.”
Through those preseason practices and early season meets, Carrington noticed how quickly she was reacclimating to the sport. “I’m really starting to enjoy it again,” she said. “It’s helping my mentality a lot. When you’re running so long, you have to have a strong mentality, keep pushing yourself, not give up or stop, so I feel like I’m getting back to that again.” Of course, Powlowicz’s reasons for having Carrington return were twofold. First, she was an experienced distance runner who could be counted on to provide consistent scoring for the Tigers. Second, as a senior and a standout runner in track, she’d be looked upon to lead the young Truman squad. We don’t have many upperclassmen – with Lanae, we have three seniors, two juniors, and then all underclassmen, so we’re a really young team,” Powlowicz said. “I told her, ‘I need you to come in here, set an example for these kids.’ She jumped into it 100 percent. When you’re a senior with a bunch of freshmen, it can be tough, but she’s done a really good job. The younger kids look to her. Anything she has to say, they turn and they listen. Lanae isn’t a super-vocal leader, but she sets an example and when she does talk, they listen. They trust her, and that’s huge in cross country. You need people around you who are going to pick you up and show you some love. I’ve absolutely seen that in the way she’s interacted with the younger kids.”
Once she’s able to leave the uneven terrain of the cross country courses and return to the level track, that’s where Carrington truly shines. The defending Patriot Division champion in the 300-meter hurdles and 400-meter dash as well as a member of the Tigers’ league championship 4x400 relay squad, Carrington is primed and ready for bigger and better things in her final indoor and outdoor track seasons. As a junior, Carrington put an exclamation mark on the indoor track season when she won the Ocean Breeze Freedom Games 600-meter White Run in 1:44.04, the top indoor time in the state. Everyone will be looking at Carrington in her senior campaigns. And they’ll be looking to dethrone her. She’s looking at her frontrunner status as motivation, but she also knows she can only control her own races. “This is probably the most excited I’ve been for track season,” Carrington said. “I’ve been itching for track to come. I’ve got big goals in mind, but I know I can get them done if I really work hard, stay focused, keep looking at those goals.”
While Carrington’s success on the track is unquestioned, her athletic prowess is just a small part of what makes her such an important and highly regarded member of the Harry S Truman community. A stellar student and member of Truman’s National Honor Society, Carrington’s senior course load is packed with honors-level classes. Outside of school, Carrington volunteers at her church, often working with children and helping out at camps for local kids. In recognition of her efforts, Carrington was honored as Miss Unity by the Boots on the Ground Foundation and was recognized for this achievement at the Bristol Township School Board meeting in September. Carrington is still looking at and narrowing down her list of options for college. She’s considering pursuing a major in either biology or psychology and plans to continue her athletic career at the next level.
To read Carrington’s complete story, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/female/lanae-carrington-00109168
Univest’s SuburbanOneSports.com Featured Male Athlete (Week of Oct. 3, 2023)
“From small things, big things one day come.”
--Bruce Springsteen
First-year Lower Moreland football coach Dominic Gregorio has both short- and long-term goals for his program. Although the Lions are coming off a win over Vaux Big Picture High to raise their mark to 2-3, Gregorio is envisioning a time when wins come so regularly that they are expected. Hired in the summer, he is putting a culture in place piecemeal. An owner/operator of a roofing company, the metaphor is not lost on him. “We’re just trying to set a culture now,” said Gregorio, formerly the head coach at the George School who was assistant at Abington and his alma mater, the former Bishop McDevitt. “It’s really hard to develop kids during the season. You have to develop them during the offseason. Right now, we’re trying to do both while trying to win some games.”
With a new high school being built, the hope is to build a football skyscraper, beginning with a foundation that starts with the likes of senior quarterback/captain Ryan Buoni. “Ryan is a great kid,” said Gregorio. “He is a great leader. I’ve only known him for about seven weeks. That being said, this kid passes all the tests as a leader. He’s a good student. He’s respected by his teammates, respected by people in the building and by the administration. When you’ve passed all those tests, you’ve got to be a pretty good person. I’d loved to have had four years of this kid.”
When Gregorio noticed that Buoni needed to step up and be a leader in a difficult situation, the message was well-received and the challenge was met. “He is very open that he wants to build a culture,” Buoni said. “He wants me and the other seniors to be the foundation of that. He puts it in my hands very heavily. He wants me to keep this team together and focused, so that we can become a winning program. He really wants this season to be a foundation.”
Buoni’s maturity may also have to do with growing up fast after dealing with the tragedy of losing his mother, Christine Buoni, suddenly to a blood clot in her heart this past Jan. 27. “I lost my dad at 23, and I know how much it affected me,” said Gregorio. “I can’t imagine losing your mother at 17, but he has fought through adversity with that.” The ongoing battle, according to Buoni, has been a slow and steady one. “It was rough,” he reflected. “It happened in the winter. Football was over. It wasn’t the warmest weather outside, so I kind of bottled myself up inside for the first couple of months. I used the gym, honestly. That is where I built a stronger connection with the gym. It was a place where I could work hard and just mold myself into a better person. It also helped me get stronger for the next football season.”
While the death was unexpected, Buoni took solace in the fact that he had evolved into a true student-athlete while his mother got to see it. “She loved how well I was doing in school,” he said. “I had just started to become a serious student. My freshman year was COVID, so it was a struggle. Educational-wise, I just wasn’t the best student. I didn’t adapt at all to online. Sophomore year was just an ‘eh’ year. But, last year, I was a B to A-minus student, and that’s something she was real proud about right before she passed. Just knowing it was something that she was proud about was a big thing that kept me going.”
While he only missed around three days of school after his mother’s passing, Buoni used that long and lonely winter to try and attach some meaning to it. He has recently learned to repeat the mantra of “everything happens for a reason” to himself. “Ever since I lost my mom, it was a way to encourage myself,” he explained. “I’m here for a reason. I can’t put myself down. I have to keep going. Obviously, this obstacle is my life is here, but I can mentally strengthen myself and keep myself going.” Buoni, who participated in MiniThon and Unified Track, is not sure what college he will attend but is clear on two points: 1. His football career will again be reduced to pickup games, and 2. He will likely stay local and may major in something related to sports, such as sports medicine.
To read the remainder Buoni’s story, please click on the following link: https://www.suburbanonesports.com/featured-athletes/male/ryan-buoni-00109136
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