It was an exciting day at the track in Division 3. There were great finishes, individual performances and multiple state records set.
The day started off with a bang right away in the girls 100 meter hurdles, where Colonel Crawford’s Katie Ruffener re-set her own state record with a US Top 25 time (according to Milesplit) of 13.71 seconds.
In the girls 1600, Caleigh Richards of Cortland Maplewood won her 4th state title (2 XC and 2021 1600) as just a sophomore. She held off a furious charge from Fort Loramie’s Claire Rethman and won in a time of 4:57.53.
In the boys 1600, we saw another record setting performance, with Lima Perry’s Brady Yingst winning in a state record time of 4:10.74. He put on a great kick, running his last lap in 60.2 to secure the record. He later came back and also won the 3200 in a time of 9:14.46.
The Boys 800 saw another record setting performance when United Local’s Kaleb Nastari broke his state record that he set in the regional by becoming the first division 3 boy to break the 1:50 barrier. His time of 1:49.56 is not only a D3 state record, but a top 5 all-time OHSAA 800 meter performance.
McDonald athletes are familiar with winning gold in distance events, and junior Megan Hipple now joins that tradition as she took home the win in the girls 3200 in a time of 10:55.09. It was quite an eventful race as Megan seemed to think she was finishing after 7 laps and had stopped at the finish line, only to hear the gun for the final lap go off. She quickly regained her pace and finished strong to win the gold.
There were many other great performances on the day, including the following:
Beau Brungard of Springfield Local – 2nd in the 110m hurdles and 2nd in the 300m hurdles
Kenna Stimmel of Margaretta – 4th in the 100m hurdles, 2nd in the 100m, 1st in the 4×100. Yesterday she set the State Pole Vault record with a jump on 14’6.25″
Sherron Jones of Hopewell Loudon – 1st place in the 100, 400 and 200 meters
A great meet overall. Division 2 is up next.
