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COLUMBUS — For the Tri-County area’s track and field athletes, Friday’s state preliminaries at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium was the day to advance or go home.
Running in the late afternoon and early evening, they even had to endure a half hour delay due to an early afternoon storm, along with the draining heat and humidity that affected all of the athletes.
For three St. John’s relays and two individuals, along with three Columbus Grove girls relays, and two individuals, they lived another day.
Three other individuals failed to advanced into today’s finals.
The Lady Blue Jays 4 x 100 meter squad (Lauren Burgei, Linsey Looser, Dana Martin and Allison Reindel) and 4 x 2 (Burgei, Tori Recker, Martin and Reindel) garnered top 4 finishes overall to advance.
Burgei was the lead off on last 4 x 100s runners-up and used that experience this time around.
“Doing what we did last year proved we could do it this year. I was more relaxed though you’ll always be nervous even if it’s your 100th race,” the junior said.
Advancing helped Reindel put the disappointment of not moving on in the 100-meter dash earlier behind her.
“It probably made me want it even more. Both relays gave me another chance to move on,” she explained.
Looser would remain alive in the 200 meter dash, gaining fourth place in her heap in a photo finish.
The look on her face said it all.
“I’m amazed, I’m speechless. I never though I could do it,” the sophomore exclaimed. “I was more nervous for the earlier relays; for this race I was more excited and exhausted. I guess I just ran like I had nothing to lose.”
Sophomore Cameron Hermiller won his 100-meter heat and felt he earned it.
“This is the toughest race I’ve ever had. I was really pushed,” he noted. “I saw one of the guys to my right out of the corner of my eye. I felt I pulled away the last 30 meters which is a good sign. I hope I have an even better run left for the finals. At least I won’t have two exams to worry about like I did this morning.”
He would later return to anchor the boys 4×1 (Nick Baldauf, Collin Etzkorn and Jay Leininger) to a season best 43.8 seconds to gain today’s finals.
“The teams are really fast; you’re not going to face any tougher competition. We tried to stay off the track as long as possible and stay cool,” Baldauf noted.
That was really the only adjustment the foursome had to make due to the weather.
“We remind ourselves of three things before every race; running through the guy you’re handing the baton to, make sure he’s in the zone and exploding after the hand-off. If we do that and get our hand-offs better, we’ll do OK in the finals,” Baldauf added.
Recker would fail to make it out of her 300-meter hurdle heat.
“My leg tightened up down the stretch and I’ve been battling a cold since Tuesday. Even if you think you’re running your best race, it’s hard when you’re being held back because you’re not healthy,” she said.
The lone Jefferson representative, sophomore Tim Sander, didn’t move on in the boys 300-meter hurdles.
“I don’t know what happened. I thought I got off well, but couldn’t do it,” he explained. “We came down early today and didn’t feel I was nervous until I was about ready to race, which is what you want. I felt I handled the environment even though I can say the state tournament is awesome.”
Sanders figured he learned a valuable lesson.
“Sometimes you just don’t have it on a particular day. I got here and I have two more chances to be back,” he concluded.
Grove’s 4×100 girls squad (Jamie Scott, Aubrie Stechschulte, Ella Diller and Amanda Schroeder), 4×2 (Scott, Diller, Schroeder and Jaimie Lewis) and 4×4 (Paige Heffner, Diller, Schroeder and Lewis) all punched their tickets to the finals.
“I think the real key to why our relays are so good is our camaraderie; we really work well together. We’re real tight with each other,” Scott observed. “Today we really had to be prepared because of the heat and the delay. We focused on being on time and really hydrating ourselves. Last year our 4×2 made it to state and we ran in a rain storm.”
The heat in particular took a toll on Lewis who before anchoring the 4×4 gutted out the 400-meter dash in gaining the final 8.
“I usually know what I have between races. I knew after the 4×2 that I was hurting for the 400 but you get through it; success hurts,” she stated. “There was no way I was going to scratch any event; I just did what I could to get liquids in me and keep stretching.”
Grove’s Heath Nickels advanced to the boys 300-meter hurdle finals.
In the only Division III championship decided Friday, the Lincolnview 4×8 girls relay (Kylie Honigford, Jordon Reynolds, Brittany Katalenas and Katie Honigford) finished 11th.
All four agreed on the two reasons why.
“The weather was really tough; it was really hot,” Reynolds said. “It was hard to focus or stay cool.”
“We didn’t have the competition during the season we needed to and it hurt us today; the times were really fast,” Kylie Honigford added. “We had the 11th best time coming in so we’re not really that disappointed because our expectations weren’t that high.”
Her sister Katie figured they could take solace from the record setting performance by the champions.
“They shattered the record; it was that kind of field,” she concluded.
Set to participate in their finals today are St. John’s juniors Erin Calvelage (3,200-meter run) and Katie Grothouse (pole vault); 800-meter runners in Lincolnview junior Katie Honigford and Ottoville freshman Molly Maag; and a trio of Columbus Grove performers: defending state discus champion Cory Meuleman (also in the shot put), junior Nickles (pole vault) and senior Stechschulte (long jump).
In Division II, Elida’s three entries were one and done in Friday morning’s events.
Senior Quinesha Dinkins saw her chance in the 100-meter high (33-inch) hurdles end before it began. She was disqualified for a false start.
“I don’t know what happened. I wasn’t nervous or anything,” she explained.
Later on, she saw her high school career come to an end, along with classmate Rosie Paris, as the 4×200-meter relay (along with freshmen Quanisha McFadden and Toni Manley) finished fifth in their heat in a time of 1: 45.62.
“We ran our best. It wasn’t good enough,” Dinkins added.
McFadden hoped that having a race under her belt would help her later in the 200-meter dash semifinals.
However, it did not as she ended up sixth in her heat in 26.94.
Today’s program begins at 9 a.m. (Division I field events), with Division III holding all of its field events at noon and 2:30 p.m. The running finals commence at 4:30 p.m.

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