LeFevre, relay earn medals

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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Robby LeFevre has gone to the state meet twice.

He has as many individual medals.

LeFevre, a Fort Recovery High School sophomore, finished fifth in the 200-meter dash and helped the 4x100 relay earn a medal during the OHSAA Division III Track and Field State Finals on Saturday at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium at Ohio State University.

“I’m a little disappointed with the outcome here,” said LeFevre, who was seeded third after Friday’s preliminaries. “I know I was (predicting) fifth but I was hoping for better.”

The sophomore, who tied for seventh in the state as a freshman, was in second at 150 meters, but before the final 20 meters said his leg began to cramp.

“I was just trying to get done at that point,” he said. “I couldn’t keep going.”

LeFevre had a time of 22.27 seconds, slightly off of his 22.23 seconds from Friday’s preliminaries. Cory-Rawson senior Mason Warnimont successfully defended his state title with a time of 21.75 seconds.

“I got to the end of the turn I thought I was doing pretty well still,” LeFevre said. “Once I got to the (straightaway) was when I really got dead, I guess. I couldn’t really move the way I wanted to.”

FRHS coach Hank Bevington said he too was slightly upset knowing LeFevre wasn’t able to finish at his seed or better.

“It is disappointing because you know he can do it,” he said. “You know he has the speed and he’s got the talent to do it.”

The Indians’ 4x100 relay team of Riley Person, Jared Timmerman, Brayden Schoen and LeFevre was the only one at the state finals comprised entirely of underclassmen. It was seeded ninth, and improved one spot to finish eighth in 44.2 seconds.

“I think it’s great,” said LeFevre, the relay’s anchor. “We’ve got three guys on here who are likely going to be three-year All-Ohioans. I think that’s an amazing thing.”

The top eight places earn state medals and All-Ohio honors.

“We put in all this work and it finally paid off in the end,” said freshman Brayden Schoen, the third leg of the relay.”

Running from the outside lane, the Indians lost the stagger at the first handoff. After the second transition, they were all but completely out of contention for a state championship. All they had to do at that point was beat at least one team to earn a spot on the podium.

The third and final handoff, Schoen to LeFevre, was clean, and the latter stayed ahead of Nelsonville-York’s Nelson Edwards to put the Tribe in eighth place. Top-seeded Gamble Montessori won in 42.94 seconds.

“They ran very well,” Bevington said. “I was very proud of them. It is an unbelievable accomplishment for them to just come to a state track meet. Being in the ninth lane and going to the podium, it is a very difficult situation for them to run everything down.”

Pearson, who started the relay, was glad to end his first high school track season at the sport’s highest level.

“I wasn’t expecting to make it to state, but now we’re here, we made the podium as all four underclassmen which is a really cool experience,” he said.

Travis Sutter had his career come to a close with a 13th-place finish in the 1,600 run. He had a time of 4 minutes, 33.93 seconds. Top-seeded Brendan Siefker of Ottoville won in 4:13.69.