June 1, 2019 at 7:00 p.m.
Fort boys take seventh
Indian boys track continues climb toward top at the OHSAA Division III state meet
Fort boys take seventh
Copyright 2019, The Commercial Review
All Rights Reserved.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Indians barely showed up in the team standings three years ago.
The next season they had just five points, and they doubled it the year after that.
Now they cracked the top 10.
Fort Recovery High School's boys track team stood on the podium in five of the six events in which it competed Saturday as it tied for seventh overall in the OHSAA Division III State Track & Field Championships at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium on the campus of Ohio State University.
The top eight in each event earn state medals and the distinction of being named All-Ohio.
“Super proud of the kids today,” said FRHS coach Kylee Moody. “Everyone made it to the finals which is an awesome accomplishment in itself. We scored in almost every single event today. Everyone is coming home with hardware.
“It is definitely going in the right direction, it is definitely exciting and hopefully they can build off it.”
East Canton won the team championship with 42 points, and Columbiana Crestview totaled 36 for second.
The Indians scored 23 points to finish in a four-way tie with Liberty Center, Africentric and Springfield (New Middletown). Three years ago the Indians were 77th overall, and climbed to 45th in 2017. Last season they were 18th. The trend toward the top continues.
“If anything we're just going to get stronger next year,” said junior Drew Muhlenkamp, who anchored the 4x400-meter relay team that was the top seed but finished fourth. “The snowball has kind of just been rolling and rolling with this program and it’s really just gonna keep going.”
Owen Moorman, Jacob Acheson, Jared Timmerman and Muhlenkamp entered the day as the No. 1 seed in the race with their time of 3 minutes, 24.97 seconds, from Friday's preliminaries.
Moorman, who admitted he had an upset stomach before the race because of his nerves, was sitting near the middle of the pack when he handed off the baton. Acheson said he was just trying to get the best position possible during his leg. Timmerman got the baton fifth and wasn't able to make up much ground. Muhlenkamp managed to pass the anchor from Grandview Heights and cross the finish line in 3:25.19.
Although Moorman said he was upset with the finish, Muhlenkamp shed a more positive light on the outcome.
“I don't think there's anything to be disappointed about,” he said. “Coach just told us to have fun, keep our nerves down (and) whatever we get is how we did.
“I'm proud of our team and what we accomplished.”
Liberty Center led wire-to-wire with its championship time of 3:22.33.
Fort Recovery's other two relays, the 4x100 and 4x200, both finished third. Riley Pearson, Butch Schoen, Robby LeFevre and Acheson ended the latter in 1:30.2.
Columbiana Crestview set a Division III state meet record with their championship time of 1:27.71.
Crestview also blazed to the title in the 4x100 relay in 42.87 seconds. Pearson, Timmerman, Schoen and LeFevre finished in 43.44.
“One thing we did this year, we had clean handoffs,” Moody said. The 4x200 relay team got disqualified in the 2018 state meet because it dropped the baton.
LeFevre, a three-time medalist in the 200 dash, fell two spots from his No. 4 seed to place sixth in 22.47 seconds. Kalida's Josh Verhoff, who had competed against LeFevre in every level of the state meet, had a blistering time of 21.39 seconds, a new state meet and overall state record for Division III.
LeFevre also finished sixth in the 100 dash, climbing two spots from his seed to cross the line in 11.39 seconds.
The soon-to-be Fordham Ram ended his career with 10 state medals, and said he never anticipated capping his time with the Indians in the manner in which he did.
“I definitely didn't know if I was going to run track in high school.” he said. “I ran hurdles. I didn't have a love for the sport like I do now but I can really appreciate the sport a lot more now than I could then.
“I'm really glad that it ended up this way. I'm really proud of all of our teams throughout the years.”
Individually, Muhlenkamp wasn't able to match his seed coming in for the 400 dash as he finished ninth in 50.74 seconds. Andrew Cates of Covington was eighth in 50.44 seconds.
Sophomore Kierra Wendel, the lone FRHS girl to compete Saturday, just missed the podium by taking ninth with a career-best 2:18.31. She was seventh after the first 400 meters but finished almost a second behind eighth-place Hope Murphy of Mogadore.
“Oh my gosh,” Moody said of Wendel's effort in this her first season competing in the distance. “Couldn't ask for a better kid. She gives it her all every single time. It was super exciting to watch.”
All Rights Reserved.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Indians barely showed up in the team standings three years ago.
The next season they had just five points, and they doubled it the year after that.
Now they cracked the top 10.
Fort Recovery High School's boys track team stood on the podium in five of the six events in which it competed Saturday as it tied for seventh overall in the OHSAA Division III State Track & Field Championships at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium on the campus of Ohio State University.
The top eight in each event earn state medals and the distinction of being named All-Ohio.
“Super proud of the kids today,” said FRHS coach Kylee Moody. “Everyone made it to the finals which is an awesome accomplishment in itself. We scored in almost every single event today. Everyone is coming home with hardware.
“It is definitely going in the right direction, it is definitely exciting and hopefully they can build off it.”
East Canton won the team championship with 42 points, and Columbiana Crestview totaled 36 for second.
The Indians scored 23 points to finish in a four-way tie with Liberty Center, Africentric and Springfield (New Middletown). Three years ago the Indians were 77th overall, and climbed to 45th in 2017. Last season they were 18th. The trend toward the top continues.
“If anything we're just going to get stronger next year,” said junior Drew Muhlenkamp, who anchored the 4x400-meter relay team that was the top seed but finished fourth. “The snowball has kind of just been rolling and rolling with this program and it’s really just gonna keep going.”
Owen Moorman, Jacob Acheson, Jared Timmerman and Muhlenkamp entered the day as the No. 1 seed in the race with their time of 3 minutes, 24.97 seconds, from Friday's preliminaries.
Moorman, who admitted he had an upset stomach before the race because of his nerves, was sitting near the middle of the pack when he handed off the baton. Acheson said he was just trying to get the best position possible during his leg. Timmerman got the baton fifth and wasn't able to make up much ground. Muhlenkamp managed to pass the anchor from Grandview Heights and cross the finish line in 3:25.19.
Although Moorman said he was upset with the finish, Muhlenkamp shed a more positive light on the outcome.
“I don't think there's anything to be disappointed about,” he said. “Coach just told us to have fun, keep our nerves down (and) whatever we get is how we did.
“I'm proud of our team and what we accomplished.”
Liberty Center led wire-to-wire with its championship time of 3:22.33.
Fort Recovery's other two relays, the 4x100 and 4x200, both finished third. Riley Pearson, Butch Schoen, Robby LeFevre and Acheson ended the latter in 1:30.2.
Columbiana Crestview set a Division III state meet record with their championship time of 1:27.71.
Crestview also blazed to the title in the 4x100 relay in 42.87 seconds. Pearson, Timmerman, Schoen and LeFevre finished in 43.44.
“One thing we did this year, we had clean handoffs,” Moody said. The 4x200 relay team got disqualified in the 2018 state meet because it dropped the baton.
LeFevre, a three-time medalist in the 200 dash, fell two spots from his No. 4 seed to place sixth in 22.47 seconds. Kalida's Josh Verhoff, who had competed against LeFevre in every level of the state meet, had a blistering time of 21.39 seconds, a new state meet and overall state record for Division III.
LeFevre also finished sixth in the 100 dash, climbing two spots from his seed to cross the line in 11.39 seconds.
The soon-to-be Fordham Ram ended his career with 10 state medals, and said he never anticipated capping his time with the Indians in the manner in which he did.
“I definitely didn't know if I was going to run track in high school.” he said. “I ran hurdles. I didn't have a love for the sport like I do now but I can really appreciate the sport a lot more now than I could then.
“I'm really glad that it ended up this way. I'm really proud of all of our teams throughout the years.”
Individually, Muhlenkamp wasn't able to match his seed coming in for the 400 dash as he finished ninth in 50.74 seconds. Andrew Cates of Covington was eighth in 50.44 seconds.
Sophomore Kierra Wendel, the lone FRHS girl to compete Saturday, just missed the podium by taking ninth with a career-best 2:18.31. She was seventh after the first 400 meters but finished almost a second behind eighth-place Hope Murphy of Mogadore.
“Oh my gosh,” Moody said of Wendel's effort in this her first season competing in the distance. “Couldn't ask for a better kid. She gives it her all every single time. It was super exciting to watch.”
Top Stories
9/11 NEVER FORGET Mobile Exhibit
Chartwells marketing
September 17, 2024 7:36 a.m.
Events
250 X 250 AD