Record breaker

COLUMBUS, Ohio — There’s a school of thought to take it easy in the state preliminaries, especially for athletes who are highly seeded.

The objective is just to advance to the next day.

Anna Roessner simply isn’t built that way.

The Fort Recovery High School senior surpassed a state record, broke two of her own school records, established herself as a dominant No. 1 seed in the 100-meter dash and put herself in position for three state medals Friday during the preliminaries of the OHSAA Division III Track and Field State Championships at Ohio State University’s Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.

“We’re a little bit mind blown here today,” said FRHS coach Christy Diller. “So much for chilling in the prelims. 

“A couple of casual school records; it’s no big deal, right,” she added facetiously.

“We were just saying, probably the smart thing would have been to chill a little bit in the prelims,” she continued. “However, I love a kid that just wants to rip off everyone’s face every time they run. You can’t teach that. You can’t coach that. It’s amazing.”

Roessner will run in three state finals races today — the 100 dash at 9:40 a.m., the 400 dash at 10:35 a.m. and the 200 dash at 11:25 a.m.

She is the heavy favorite in the shortest of those events and is seeded second in the other two behind state record holder Izzy Zahn of Coldwater.

“Pretty cool,” Roessner said. “A little bit of pressure, but honestly I’m just trying to have fun with it. It’s my last high school (100) race ever, so might as well make the most of it.”

Roessner set the tone for her day in a hurry in the 100 dash, separating herself from the field in the first 20 meters. As has been the case throughout her tournament run, no one was able to challenge her.

Her time of 11.83 seconds was nearly a half second faster than that of Chloe Griffith (12.32) of West Liberty-Salem in the opening heat. No one in the second heat came close, with Montpelier’s Bria Friend winning that race in 12.44 seconds.

Friday’s effort makes Roessner, who finished fifth in the state in the event last year, the top seed by 0.49 seconds.

“That was fun,” said Roessner, who also placed third in the 200 dash last season and helped the Indians’ 4x100 relay team to a runner-up finish. “Honestly, I was just kind of zoning on the finish line. I’ve been working a lot on starts this week, so I was really hoping and praying that I would have a good start today. And I think I definitely had a pretty good start.

“I’m pretty happy with it. Once I got out, I was kind of just like, ‘Push as hard as you can to the finish line,’ and then take it from there.”

Running in opposite heats from Zahn in each of the other two races, Roessner again owned the track. She made up the stagger in the 400 dash by the end of the back stretch and spent the rest of the race pulling away. She crossed the line more than a second ahead of runner-up Olivia Hudson (57.39) of Oberlin, and her time of 55.94 broke her own school record by more than four tenths of a second.

The senior ran the best race of her career again in the 200 dash, with her 24.02 besting the school record she set during the district meet at Piqua two weeks ago by 0.16 seconds. Hudson was again a distant second.

Her time in the 200 dash was at least enough to put some pressure on Zahn, who took the No. 1 seed in 23.72. (Both Zahn and Roessner ran times that surpassed the previous state meet and Division III records.)

“She put herself in position that if Izzy has even a slight big of an off day, she’s gonna be there to capitalize,” said Diller. “She has a high amount of respect for Izzy Zahn, and she knows what she can do. That girl is amazing and she’s running like it. She will just be glad to inch herself a little closer.”

Zahn will be the No. 1 seed by more than a second for the 400 dash after setting a new state meet record of 54.56 on Friday.

Roessner planned to go through her normal pre-race routine Friday night, get some rest and eat a good meal in preparation for what she hopes will be a historic day today. She stood atop a tournament podium for the first time in her career during the regional meet at Troy — she won all three events — and is excited for the possibility of having a stage championship medal hung around her next.

“Standing on the podium at first at regional was a pretty good feeling,” said Roessner, “so hopefully I can do that again.”