A pair of area athletes reached the podium and a handful of others earned the chance to do the same during the first day of the Division I State Track and Field Championships Friday at Hilliard Darby.
In Friday’s field event finals, Olentangy Orange’s Jonathan Petersen and Olentangy Berlin’s Luke Walden reached the podium, finishing third and sixth, respectively, in the boys pole vault.
After clearing 14-06, 15-0 and 15-6 on his first three attempts, Petersen eclipsed 15-10 and 16-02 without much trouble, either. With just three vaulters still alive, though, his run came to an end at 16-06, where he missed all three attempts to finish third.
Walden, meanwhile, cleared 15-0 to finish tied for sixth with Ross’ Nicholas Davis. The Pioneers’ Kaleb Cramblett also competed in the event, closing 15th after missing each of his thee attempts at 14-0.
Also, Delaware Hayes’ Orion Ward and Olentangy Liberty’s Camryn Thompson finished 10th and 13th in the boys long jump and girls high jump, respectively.
Ward’s best attempt came on his third and final jump of the day — a leap in which he cleared 21-11.25. Thompson cleared 5-0 on her first jump, and advanced past 5-02 with a solid second attempt. She missed each of her three tries at 5-04, though, as her solid sophomore season came to a close.
On the track, Olentangy’s Sydney Burrs, Big Walnut’s Alec Carr, Ward, Olentangy’s Quin Forgrave and Orange’s Ava Musgrove qualified for today’s finals.
Burrs finished fifth in the preliminaries of the girls 300-meter hurdles and sixth in the 100-meter hurdles, qualifying for the finals in both events with respective efforts of 45.16 and 15.06 seconds. Big Walnut’s Alexus Roberts also competed in the 100-meter event, closing 11th in preliminary action with a time of 15.27 seconds.
Carr, meanwhile, finished seventh in the prelims of the boys 110-meter hurdles, crossing the finish line in 14.57 seconds. Ward was seventh in the 100-meter dash prelims in 10.73 seconds and sixth in the 200-meter dash with an effort of 21.97 seconds, Forgrave closed sixth in the 100- and 400-meter seated wheelchair events with respective efforts of 19.59 seconds and 1:11.91 and Musgrove posted the fifth-fastest preliminary time in the girls 200-meter dash (25.14 seconds).
In other action, Musgrove finished 11th in the girls 100-meter dash prelims (12.44 seconds), Orange’s girls 4×200 relay team of Josephine Davis, Celeste Conley, Kylie Hanson and Cassidy Shimp also finished 11th (1:44.10) and Carr closed 14th in the boys 300-meter hurdle prelims (40.07 seconds).
In today’s second day, in addition to the track finals, Big Walnut’s Mark Ruffing will compete in the boys discus finals, Orange’s Joel Addo is set to compete in the boys high jump finals, Olentangy’s Jaedyn Tucker will compete in the girls long jump and the Pioneers’ duo of Taylor Hill and Sara Borton will compete in the girls pole vault.
Division II at Pickerington North
Buckeye Valley’s Carlie Osborne finished 13th in preliminary action at Friday’s first day of the Division II State Track and Field Championship meet at Pickerington North.
Osborne crossed the line in 59.72 seconds. The eighth and final qualifier, Columbus South’s Spiritual Wilson Foster Wright, finished in 58.65 seconds.
In today’s second and final day, BV’s Chloe Gibson will compete for top honors in the girls long jump at 10 a.m.
