On to Owens

Last season Mara Pearson jumped 17 feet, 8.25 inches, to earn the second seed for long jump at the OHSAA Division III state track and field meet.

This season, Pearson will return to Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium as the top seed.

Pearson is one of nine athletes for the Fort Recovery High School track team that will be competing at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium at Ohio State University in the OHSAA Division III state track and field meet Friday and Saturday.

“This is probably the most number of girls we've taken. Definitely, since I've been involved with the program,” FRHS coach Christy Diller said. “So yeah, can't be happier about that.”

Despite being seeded second in 2022, Pearson finished seventh, while sixth-seeded Ashtan Winfrey of Africentric won with a jump of 18 feet, 8.75 inches.

This season, Pearson’s regional jump of 18 feet, 2.75 inches, earned her the top seed over last season’s No. 1 seed Shelby Grover of Lucas (18 feet, 2.25 inches). She recognized that, once again, there will be a lot of competition to reach the top of the podium.

“Just looking at our numbers, it’s an even playing field,” Pearson said. “It really can go anyway on Friday. Everyone’s numbers have been really close this whole year so you're just hoping to feel good that day, hoping for a (career best) and just being happy that you’re there and going out to have fun.”

Pearson’s best jump this season came April 18 at Minster when she set a new school record of 19 feet, 0.5 inches.

While her ultimate goal is to stand atop the podium Friday, she also wants to jump more consistently than she did the last two years at the state meet and improve upon the seventh-place finish.

“Personally, it would be crazy. It doesn’t feel like that could be possible,” Pearson said. “It’s hard to think that could be a possibility …

“I would like to jump mid to high 18s. I’m not expecting any crazy PRs, but I’d love to have one. It’s not like I’m holding myself to a very high standard because I’ve made it to state and that’s the greatest thing about it.”

Pearson will also be competing in the 4x100-meter relay Friday. The team, which also includes Kiana Matsuda, Paige Guggenbiller and Anna Roessner, earned its state berth after finishing one hundredth of a second faster than Finneytown with a time of 51.05 seconds, earning them the 17th seed out of 18 teams. The top-seeded Dalton sports a time of 49.66 seconds, while the eighth-seeded Garfield Heights is at 50.44. (The top eight finishers in each event earn state medals.)

They have only been together for a couple of weeks, having ran as a group for the first time at the Spencerville district meet May 19. Since then, they’ve broken the school record with a time of 50.97 in the preliminary round of the regional meet.

“For the 4x1, I think a big goal will be making it to the final,” Pearson said. “But I know our handoffs have been kind of scary ever since the district prelims, so just knowing that we made it big but also running strongly and confidently (is important). It would be nice to have (career best) overall and have another school record and make it even harder to get next year.”

The other individual competing at the state meet is Trevor Heitkamp in the boys 1,600 run. His regional time of 4 minutes, 26.91 seconds, has him seeded 15th out of 18 competitors.

Last season Heitkamp competed in the 3,200 run at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium, giving him some valuable experience about the track’s set-up.

“I just remember being pushed up against the guard rail along the side where it felt like I was running right on top of that guard rail,” Heitkamp said. “It was scary, especially being a sophomore. So this year I am going to try avoiding the pack as much as I can.”

He has also been doing film work on previous state meets to learn how previous racers have performed and what strategies have worked for top finishers in the past.

Heitkamp is also setting out to break the school record of 4:20 set by Phil Ranly in 1998. His current career best is the 4:26.91 at the regional meet, but believes the elevated competition can help him achieve the goal.

“I’m kind of close to that and I have a field that can push me to that so success will be getting closer to that or even reaching that mark,” Heitkamp said. “Or placing better than 15th, that would be ideal. I think I can do that. Ideally top 8 would be nice but overall, I’d just be happy if I ran a 4:20.”

The FRHS girls 4x800 relay team — Ellie Will, Megan Diller, Kennedy Muhlenkamp, Natalie Brunswick — will be the first team to compete Friday in Columbus. Their time of 9:48.80 has them seeded 11th out of 18, two seconds behind eighth-seeded Botkins (9:46.39).

“Just go out there and have fun,” Natalie Brunswick said about the team’s goals. “The fact that we’ve already done what we needed to do which was get to state and then on top of that we already broke the school record.”

Megan Diller is the only senior of the nine athletes who will compete this season.

Christy Diller, Megan’s mom, is hoping the other eight athletes will be able to learn from this experience and build upon it in the future.

“Oh, it’s huge,” Christy Diller said. “You know, a lot of times that first time they get to state your kids are just thrilled to be there and in performances, maybe a secondary goal there. They just want to get there and get the experience.”