FRHS track won’t stress over state tourney

Only six Indians are set to compete tomorrow.

For five of them, it will be the last time they don the purple and white, and they are hoping to celebrate their final career appearances as Indians.

The Fort Recovery High School track team will be represented at the OHSAA Division III state tournament at the University of Dayton’s Welcome Stadium Thursday and Friday by five seniors and one junior and will compete in a total of eight events.

“It’s going to be a fun meet,” said FRHS coach Christy Diller. “We’ve got a really talented bunch of kids and a lot of them qualified in two events which is crazy. …

Our goal is to make finals. I think keeping it light and low key keeps everyone in a good headspace so they can go out, have fun and compete.”

The lone junior, Anna Roessner, will compete in three events, while Trevor Heitkamp, Kiana Matsuda and Mara Pearson are slated for two events and Natalie Brunswick will be in one.

Roessner will be the first athlete to compete for Fort Recovery in Thursday’s prelims.

She is slated to run the 100-meter dash at approximately 4:50 p.m. and is listed as the fourth seed with a time of 12.24 seconds. Regional-foe Delaney Jones of West Liberty Salem has the top seed at 11.93 seconds. The other two sprinters are a lot more familiar, as Roessner raced against St. John’s Alex Kessen (12.0 seconds) and Coldwater’s Izzy Zahn (12.21 seconds) multiple times throughout the season.

Later in the evening, Roessner will look to advance and face all three in the 200-meter dash, as the same three girls hold the top spots in that event as well.

“It’s nice to know them and know that I’m friends with them,” Roessner said. “It’s fun to know that all these girls from the (Midwest Athletic Conference) are all up there at state. …

“I know I have the potential to keep them and will keep that in the back of my head, but I also know they are very, very fast, so it’s not easy by all means.”

Roessner will also lead off the 4x100 relay team that holds the highest seed of the Indians at third. The regional time of 49.19 seconds clocks in 0.02 seconds slower than Trinity for the second seed.

The top seed, West Liberty-Salem, held a lower seed than the Indians at the regional, but ran what would be a state record 48.67 seconds. (Gates Mills Gilmour Academy set the record of 48.7 in 2009.)

“We are seeded well,” Diller said. “My personal philosophy is that if we keep things light they can compete their best because they aren’t worried about pressure on them.”

Diller had good things to say about each leg of the race from Roessner’s starts, Paige Guggenbiller’s ability to step into the role last year to create a winning formula, Kiana Matsuda’s ability to “cook the curve” and create distance in the third leg before Mara Pearson powers through the final stretch.

Matsuda and Pearson will both compete in individual events as well.

Pearson is making her fourth straight state appearance in the long jump. After making the finals her first three years, she is seeded 10th with a mark of 17 feet, 4.5 inches. Morgan Baumer (17 feet, five inches) of St. Henry holds the ninth seed for the final spot in the finals, while Peebles’ Payton Johnson (17 feet, 6.25 inches) has the eighth seed for the final medal. Sandy Valley’s Lexi Tucci jumped the furthest at the regional with a distance of 18 feet, 3.5 inches for the top spot. 

Pearson isn’t bothered about the seed lines because she has had previous experiences at state.

“Coaches told me I’ve had the biggest PR out of everyone there,” Pearson said. “I have it in me. I’ve jumped it before and I’ve done it before.

“It makes me feel good thinking even with two bad meets I’m still making it to state. Feeling that way makes me comfortable going into state, but I also want to maximize my time there.”

Matsuda got an at-large berth in the 300 hurdles and is seeded 15th at 46.82 seconds. Jameson Pillifant of the Columbus School for Girls holds the ninth seed at 46.02. Diller noted that while Matusda wasn’t naturally a hurdler, her athleticism and work ethic played a large role in getting her to the state meet.

Brunswick and Heitkamp won’t touch the track until Friday.

Brunswick ran a school record 5 minutes, 10.75 seconds, at the regional to earn an at-large bid in the 1,600 run. She is seeded 15th, while Dayton Christian’s Isabella Ferriman is seeded eighth at 5:06.72. Ferriman is just one seed better than Minster’s Chaney Cedarleaf, who Brunswick beat at the district meet on May 17.

Heitkamp, the sole representative of the boys team, will compete in the 1,600 run and the 3,200 run. (He qualified in the 3,200 run in 2022 and the 1,600 run in 2023, but this is the first time he made it to state in both events.)

His time of 4:22.58 is good for the 11th seed and trails Denison Murphy of Grandview Heights by 1.04 seconds for the No. 8 seed. Heitkamp holds the same seed with a 9:38.79 in the 3,200 run. Whiteoak’s Landon Eyre is seeded eighth with a time of 9:24.2.

Heitkamp has a couple of potential goals to hit, including improving on his 13th and 14th-place finishes, medaling, setting new career bests and setting school records. While having these different goals, he is following his coach’s guidance in not putting too much pressure but rather focusing on enjoying his final high school meet.

“I’ve made it to the final,” Heitkamp said. “It’s going to be a very hard race but the advantage is I’m not expected to go out and win anything, so I can take that pressure off myself. The last two weeks there was the pressure to qualify and perform well.

“Here, there’s not that pressure to perform well, however, I have a great field around me to push me to a fast time and hopefully a great place.”