DIVISION I
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Pickerington Central won its second-consecutive boys Division I track and field team state championship, and Liberty Township Lakota East won its first girls track and field team state title at the 2019 Ohio High School Athletic Association state tournament at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium Saturday.
Pickerington Central won back-to-back titles in record-breaking fashion, finishing with an OHSAA boys all-division record 87 team points. Central’s 87 points broke Cleveland Glenville’s mark of 80 points set in 2004. The Tigers also made history by sweeping all four relay events for the first time in state tournament history. The 4x800M relay team of sophomore Garner Wallace, freshman Jailen Willis and seniors Terry Simuel and Brady Johnson took first with a time of 7:42.68. Sophomore Lorenzo Styles, senior Evan Matthews, Simuel and senior Denzell Feagin broke the state record in the 4x200M relay with a time of 1:24.42, the 14th-fastest time ever in high school according to the NFHS record book, and the fastest time ever by a school outside of Texas. Junior Darnell Bonner and sophomore Keith Moton joined Styles and Feagin to win the 4x100M relay (41.49). In the 4x400M relay, Simuel, Matthews, Wallace and senior Brady Johnson finished in 3:16.34, over two seconds faster than second place. Feagin added first-place finishes in the 100M (10.67) and 200M (21.44) dashes after finishing fourth and sixth a year ago, Matthews repeated as state champion in the 300M hurdles (37.07), Johnson finished third in the 800M run (1:52.80), Wallace placed fourth in the 1600M run (4:16.01) and Styles rounded out the Tigers’ podium finishes with a third-place finish in the 100M dash (10.85).
Toledo Whitmer earned its second OHSAA boys track and field team runner-up finish, scoring 24 points. Two second-place finishes highlighted the tournament for Whitmer. Senior Jacob Harris in the 3200M run (9:14.34) and junior Tre Young in the pole vault (16-02.00).
The Thunderhawks of Liberty Township Lakota East took first in the girls Division I state tournament with a team score of 65 via nine top-five podium finishes. The team’s 65 points is tied for the third-most in OHSAA girls Division I history and the most since 2009. Senior Kaylyn Heath and junior Serena Clark racked up 32 points in the 100M and 200M dashes with Heath finishing first (11.93) and fifth (24.77), and Clark finishing second (12.12) and first (24.08), respectively. Heath and Clark, joined by junior Dawn Hilton and freshman Azariyah Bryant, reached the top of the podium again in the 4x100M relay with an OHSAA girls Division I record time of 45.82. Hilton and Bryant were a part of the second-place 4x200M relay (1:39.32), joined by senior Danni Stoughton and sophomore Camiyah James. Stoughton added a fifth-place finish in the 400M run (56.69), while Bryant (18-05.25) and James (17-11.75) took third and fourth in the long jump.
Mentor edged the returning state champion Gahanna Lincoln 41-40 to earn girls team runner-up honors. Sophomore Paige Floriea helped contribute 32 of the 41 points with a first-place finish and Jesse Owens Stadium record in the long jump (19-09.75), a third-place finish in the 100M dash (12.13) and second-place finish in the 200M dash (24.29) and by being on the second-place 4x400M relay team (3:49.48).
Riley Hunt, a sophomore from Greenville, broke the OHSAA girls record in the pole vault with a vault of 13-07.00, breaking her previous record from earlier this season by half an inch.
DIVISION II
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Cincinnati Indian Hill won its first girls team state championship and Shelby won its third boys state title at the 2019 OHSAA Division II track and field state tournament on Saturday at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.
Senior Anna Podojil of Cincinnati Indian Hill led the Braves with a podium finish in all four of her events. Podojil finished first in the 400M dash (53.67), third in the 200M dash (24.73), sixth in the 100M dash (12.48) and was on the Division II record-breaking 4x400M relay (3:49.30) team with sophomore Meghan Obrien, junior Ellie Podojil and freshman Elizabeth Whaley. Whaley and Obrien teamed up with juniors Claudia Hollander and Amy Prugh to finish sixth in the 4x800M relay (9:29.59), while Ellie Podojil finished third in the 300M hurdles (43.55) and Whaley added a fourth-place finish in the 1600M (5:03.31). Indian Hill finished the tournament with 43 team points.
The Lumberjills of Dayton Oakwood finished as runners-up in the Division II girls tournament with a total of 28 team points. Freshman Grace Hartman led the team with a second-place finish in the 1600M (4:53.43), a first-place finish in the 3200M (10:56.35) and was on the fifth-place 4x800M relay team. Junior Elizabeth Vaughn joined Hartman on the 4x800M relay team and added a third-place finish in the 3200M run (11:00.24).
Shelby won its third OHSAA boys track and field team state championship by way of seven top-four finishes. Junior Caleb Brown led the Whippets with three first-place finishes. Brown won the 1600M run with a time of 4:16.56, the 3200M run in 9:29.58 and was on the state-champion 4x800M relay team with seniors Blake Lucious, Samuel Logan and Sam Swanger. Lucious also took first in the 800M run (1:53.58) and Logan added a third-place finish in the 1600M (4:19.17) and a fourth-place finish in the 3200M run (9:38.60). Senior Uriah Schwemley rounded out Shelby’s 57 team points by taking third in the high jump with a jump of 6-06.00.
After winning its first boys track and field state championship in 2018, Cuyahoga Falls CVCA finished as the team runner-up in 2019. Senior Tre Tucker led the team by contributing 38 of the teams total 43 points, upping his 36-point contribution in 2018. Tucker repeated as the state champion in the 100M dash (10.90) and the long jump (23-03.50), took first in 200M dash (21.66) after finishing in third last year, and was on the second-place 4x100M relay team with juniors Shane Douglas and Justin Luiza and senior Jay Patsch. It was CVCA’s third track and field team runner-up finish.
DIVISION III
COLUMBUS, Ohio - West Liberty-Salem won its first girls track and field team state championship, while the East Canton boys completed the three-peat at the 2019 OHSAA Division III state tournament at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium on Saturday.
West Liberty-Salem compiled 50 points on the way to its first girls track and field team state championship without a single senior qualifier. Following the first event of the weekend, freshman Megan Adams, junior Grace Adams and sophomores Madison Bahan and Katelyn Stapleton stood atop the podium for the 4x800M relay with a winning time of 9:19.08. The Tigers also took first in the 4x200M relay (1:44.24) with a team of sophomores Kaylee LeVan and Grace Estes, junior Alex Burton and freshman Emily Hollar. Bahan, Stapleton, Estes and Hollar teamed up for a second-place finish in the 4x400M relay (3:58.95), and Adams added another second-place finish in the 1600M run (5:01.12). The Tigers final three podium finishes came in the 4x100M relay, the 400M dash and the pole vault.
For the first time in program history, the Archbold girls track and field team is heading home with the state runner-up trophy. Senior Dakota Stamm scored 32 of the team’s total 39 points. Stamm earned state champion honors in the 400M run (55.82), was on the first-place 4x400M relay team with seniors Iris Pena and Gwynne Riley and sophomore Kylie Sauder, and was part of the third-place finishing 4x800M and 4x200M relay teams.
For the third-consecutive year, East Canton is the 2019 OHSAA Division III boys track and field team state champion. The Hornets got off to a good start with a first-place finish in the 4x800M relay (7:56.34) with a team of seniors Colt Hemphill and Kyeem Newell-Owens, junior Demetrius Snellenberger and freshman Nick Martino. Snellenberger took second in the 1600M run (4:24.20), Hemphill did the same in the 800M run (1:54.71) and junior Gavin Shoeneman added a second-place finish of his own in the high jump (6-06.00). A seventh-place finish in the 4x100M relay and a third-place finish in the 4x400M relay concluded the team’s 42 points.
Columbiana Crestview earned its first boys track and field team runner-up trophy with just five state tournament qualifiers. The relay team of sophomores Brandon Yanssens and Ethan Powell, and seniors Dylan Huff and Jayce Meredith won both the 4x100M and the 4x200M relays, with a Division III state meet record time of 1:27.71 in the 4x200M relay. Senior Dominic Perry earned the team’s third first-place finish in the shot put (62-11.00) and Dylan Huff added the final six team points by finishing third in the 200M dash (22.10).
Kalida senior Josh Verhoff broke the Division III state record in the boys 200M dash with a time of 21.39, breaking the previous record of 21.50 set in 1995. Verhoff also finished second in the 100M dash.
In 2017 and 2018, Castalia Margaretta’s Kassidie Stimmel earned Division III girls pole vault state champion honors in her junior and senior seasons. This year, her sister Kenna Stimmel, a freshman at Margaretta, broke the Division III girls pole vault state record with a vault of 13-00.25 and was presented the with the first-place medal by her sister Kassidie.
The 2019 state tournament’s total attendance was 28,852.
SEATED DIVISION
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Lodi Cloverleaf sophomore Brooklynn Crist upped her number of individual state championships to five after winning the girls 100M dash (23.85) and shot put (16-05.75) at the 2019 OHSAA Track and Field State Championships at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. Westerville Central senior Lyssa Zepfel won the 400M dash (1:20.15) and 800M run (2:54.23).
Bloomdale Elmwood freshman Jaydon Jenkins won the boys 400M dash (1:00.17) and 800M run (2:05.10). Jenkins added a second-place finish in the 100M dash (17.86), finishing 0.17 seconds behind Whitehouse Anthony Wayne sophomore Aiden Green. Mount Gilead senior Bradley London won the boys shot put with a state-meet record throw of 25-03.00.