Make it a double (05/26/07)

PIQUA, Ohio - Holly Stein hopes to end her career with a state medal. Thanks to her effort Friday night, she'll have two opportunities to do so.

Stein, a Fort Recovery senior, earned a second state berth for the second straight season, finishing fourth in the girls discus competition at the Division III regional meet at Piqua's Alexander Stadium.

And as if that wasn't enough of a highlight for the Indians, sophomore Tina Roessner turned in the race of her life in the 3,200 run and junior Mindy Vogel gave the Tribe its five regional medals for the week.

The 10 points scored by the trio Friday night gave Fort Recovery 16 for the two-day meet and placed the Indian girls 16th out of 34 scoring teams. Versailles won easily with 81, and St. Henry (54) finished second.

Fort Recovery's boys placed 25th out of 40 teams with eight points. St. Henry won with 60, and Dayton Christian was second at 52.

Stein advances to the OHSAA Track and Field State Finals Saturday, June 2, where she will compete in both the shot put and discus beginning at noon. She will be joined by junior Matt Vagedes, who finished as the regional pole vault runner-up Wednesday.

"It's a very good feeling," said Stein, who earned the first of her two berths with a third-place finish Wednesday in the district shot put. "Not many people get to do that.

"I definitely didn't throw my best again, but I battled ... Any time you get to make it on to state you have to feel good."

After locking up a spot in the state meet fairly early in Wednesday's shot put competition, Stein had to fight for her chance to move on in the discus.

Her first throw had her in fifth place, but she launched the discus 114 feet, 10 inches on her second attempt to jump into third. Both Stein and Amelia Carter of DeGraff Riverside threw 115 feet, 3 inches on their third attempts, tying them for third place at the end of the preliminaries.

Carter took over third place alone on her fifth toss at 116 feet, 10 inches, but Stein remained fourth as Twin Valley South's Kait Ervin topped out at 113 feet, 11 inches.

Champion Katie Gerhardt of Cedarville blew the field away at 138 feet, 7 inches, Versailles' Christine Borchers was second at 118 feet, 7 inches and Carter and Stein followed in third and fourth. Gerhardt, Borchers and Stein each qualified for the state meet in both throwing events.

Sophomore Anne Koesters also competed for the Tribe in the discus Friday and finished 13th at 85 feet, 5 inches.

"Holly's never going to be satisfied finishing fourth, but she qualified," said Fort Recovery assistant coach Jason Grieshop. "She did what she had to do to get out. It was closer than we wanted, but she got it done and that's all you can ask.

"She's moving on. She's going to state. And we've got a chance to get her up on that podium."

Roessner entered as the No. 9 seed just hoping to earn a regional medal, but did so much more than that. She ran a race that could be a turning point in her career, hacking nearly 25 seconds from the time she ran in the 3,200 run at the district meet just a week earlier.

The sophomore started out in ninth place and stayed there throughout the first half of the race, just nipping at the heels of a group of three in front of her.

Roessner pushed into the top eight on the front stretch to end the fifth lap, then circled past two more runners on the first turn of the seventh lap to take over sixth place. She continued to hold sixth with just a lap to go, then fought hard all the way to the finish.

Jessica Brant of Troy Christian, Roessner and Ansonia's Renee Schmitmeyer surged to the finish line side-by-side and were separated by just 11 hundredths of a second. They posted times of 12-minutes, 6.47 seconds, 12:06.53 and 12:06.58 to finish in fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.

"It was the best race I've ever ran in my whole life. ... I really felt good today," said Roessner after earning her first regional medal. "I was really excited to be here. This is my favorite track in the whole world, because everybody is here and the stands are really full. You just feel like it's a big deal so you want to run well."

Roessner's time destroyed her previous career best of 12:31.34 set at the Minster district meet. It also pulled her within striking distance of the Fort Recovery school record held by her sister, Val, at 11:59.

"We came in and we had to do something special, and we got it," said Grieshop. "She ran a 5:50 first mile, and that's not too far off of what she can run the regular mile in. She followed that up in the second mile and just hung in there and battled.

"Every time somebody came up on her and challenged, she answered it. She always went with the leader of that pack. ... To come in ranked ninth and finish sixth is more than we could have ever hoped for today."

Vogel ran in a pair of regional races Friday, but the results turned out opposite of what the seeds indicated.

The junior, who was a 2006 state qualifier in the 800 run, earned her regional medal this year with a seventh-place finish in the 1,600 run at 5:28.59. She was seeded 11th in the event.

Vogel ran a strong first half of the 800 as she trailed only Lafayette Allen's Alaina Morman, who finished fourth in the state a year ago. But the No. 8 seed faded back to seventh with 300 meters to go and could not fight off a conference rival at the finish line.

She just missed a second regional medal, placing ninth at 2:24.90 behind Minster's Brigitte Sherman (2:24.73).

"Mindy had a nice day," said Grieshop. "She ran her fastest mile here today.

"Her 800 wasn't where she wanted, but it was right at her best time of the year. She just never quite got to where she was last year."[[In-content Ad]]