Big Walnut’s Alec Carr, Buckeye Valley’s Grace Daily and Olentangy Orange’s 4×100 relay teams were stellar on the first day of the OHSAA state track and field championship meet, posting solid showings in their respective preliminary races Friday night at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.
Carr, who had the fastest time in the second of two Division I 110-hurdles prelims on the boys’ side, closed with the third-fastest mark overall (14.18 seconds). Only Cincinnati Northwest’s Malachi Snow and Springfield’s Jonathan Richardson were faster, finishing in 13.99 and 14.04 seconds, respectively.
The final is slated for 4:35 p.m. this afternoon.
Daily, the county’s lone D-II athlete to reach a final, finished seventh overall in the 100-meter dash prelims (12.30 seconds). She’ll race in the final today at 1:10 p.m.
The Pioneers’ relays were impressive as well, punching spots in today’s finals with strong races. The girls, competing in the second heat, finished with the top overall time as Josephine Davis, Ava Musgrove, Cassidy Shimp and Teresa Christian closed in 47.96 seconds. Twinsburg nabbed the second seed with an effort of 48.01 seconds.
Orange’s boys team was sixth in the prelims as Jemal Burton, Jordan Rudolph, Tyler Wallace and Gabe Torres combined to finish in 42.14 seconds.
The girls’ final is set for 5:30 p.m. with the boys’ to follow immediately afterward.
In other action, Olentangy’s Amelia Smith finished 10th in the 400-meter dash prelims (58.15 seconds), Musgrove closed 13th overall in the 100-meter dash (12.36 seconds) and Carr finished 10th in the 300 hurdles (39.19 seconds), one spot away from qualifying for the finals.
Olentangy Liberty’s girls 4×200 relay quartet of Sophia Sampson, Natalie Nichols, Cara Weaver and Kennedy Elfers closed 13th (1:44.21) to see a solid season come to a close. The Patriots’ boys 4×200 relay team of Brady Karam, Aedan Gilbreath, Nick Johnson and J.J. Sebert finished 10th (1:28.26) and the Pioneers’ girls 4×400 relay team of Christian, Ava Otey, Mairin O’Brien and Abby Wells closed 12th (4:01.44).
In the lone track final of the day, Olentangy Orange’s boys 4×800 relay team of Saketh Rudraraju, Matthew Schroff, Carter Giacomelli and Bryan King combined to finish sixth with an effort of 7:38.48.
BASEBALL
Buckeye Valley took an early 1-0 lead and made it stand up until the third, but Badin plated four runs in the third and five more in the fourth on the way to a dominant 11-1, six-inning win in a Division II regional championship Friday night at Mason High School.
The Barons scored without the benefit of a hit in the first, going on top when Enzo DiRocco scored from third on a balk by Ram pitcher Eric Rawlings. BV loaded the bases with one out in the first thanks to a walk and a couple errors, but couldn’t score more than the one run.
From that point on, it was all Badin. The Rams combined to hit for the cycle in the third. Brycen Fox singled to start the inning, Lucas Moore tripled to even things at one, Jimmy Nugent doubled to give his team a 2-1 edge and Rodney Rachel connected on a two-run homer to balloon the lead to 4-1.
The Rams added five more in the fourth and single tallies in the fifth and sixth to seal the deal.
Moore and Rachel finished with three RBI apiece while Nugent was 2-for-3 with two runs and two knocked in.
Rawlings handled the rest from the mound, allowing just the unearned run. He didn’t allow a hit in his six innings of work, striking out nine and walking four.
Jaxson Stried suffered the setback for BV, allowing seven runs on six hits while striking out four and walking four in three innings.
