COLUMBUS – A year ago, Buckeye Central junior Collin Perry was closer to 12 seconds in the 100-meter dash than he was to state.
On Friday evening, the second day of the OHSAA Jesse Owens State Track and Field Championships, he became just the second athlete in program history to place in three events.
“It really means a lot,” Perry said. “I worked my butt off to get here, I gave it everything, and the results showed.
“From running 11.8 and not making regionals in anything to dropping all the way down to almost a 10 in the hundred, it just feels great. And I’m almost two feet better than last year in the long jump. It just feels amazing.”
Perry jumped 22-6 on Thursday to place third in the long jump and followed it up with fourth in the 100-meter dash (11.39 in -3.1 m/s headwind) and seventh in the 200-meter dash (22.90 in -2.5 m/s headwind). Before him, Dan Wurm was the last to do it, winning state titles in the 110-meter hurdles and with the 4×100, and a runner-up finish with the 4×400.
Matching him with one of the best finishes of the first two days was Crestview’s Liam Kuhn, who placed third in the Division IV pole vault finals, clearing 15-0 to match his season-best.
“I came in with high hopes, clearing 16 to break the school record and push for a state title,” he said. “I just got unlucky with a nagging injury.”
Kuhn has battled a hamstring injury throughout the spring which delayed his debut to mid-April and forced him to miss a few meets leading up to state.
“And I haven’t hit that pole I was on at the end in three months,” Kuhn said. “But we live and we learn. My season didn’t go how I wanted, but making it back to state is always a great opportunity.
“Just being out here is great; making it back for the fourth year feels awesome.”
That same mindset is what helped Mansfield Christian’s Riley Patrick run more freely in her Division V distance races. As a junior, she qualified in the mile and two-mile, but only earned All-Ohio honors in the shorter of the two.
“It’s a huge blessing to come back after last year,” Patrick said. “I didn’t really know what was going on, I kind of just stumbled my way over here to state. This year there were a lot more goals behind it, so it’s just a really fun way to end a season on a high note.”
She did just that, placing fourth in the 3200-meter run on Thursday and fifth in the 1600-meter run on Friday. But after her final race, she was more excited about how one of her competitors did.
“(Minster’s) Claire Bowman wanted to get under a 5:10 and she got it by tenths of a second, I was so excited for her,” Patrick said.
“It’s nice to know each other’s names and cheer for each other because even though you are competing, there’s just something so healthy about competition in distance running that I really appreciate. You go and find them and ask how they’re doing, how they’re feeling — it almost sounds like you’re sizing each other up — but you’re there because you want to be able to celebrate with them after.”
Galion’s Arthur makes history; McFadden and Crawford relay place
Making his high school debut at the state meet one season after qualifying for the middle school state meet in his first track season, Galion freshman Shaun Arthur couldn’t help but smile on the podium.
He threw a new personal best 12-10¼ in the seated shot put to place seventh on Friday and followed it up Saturday morning with a 34.81 in the seated 100 besting his previous mark by a second to place seventh.
“It’s really cool, but I want to do better,” Arthur said after shot put. “I think I can do better… my goal was 14, but not today.”
And alongside Perry in the 200-meter dash was Hillsdale senior Hayden McFadden, who bested the Buckeye Central phenom by four-hundredths of a second to place fifth. This was one day after he placed in the long jump.
“I wish I would’ve ran a little faster, you always do,” McFadden said. “But the wind was a killer … it felt like you were hitting a wall.
“These last three years have gone so by so fast, but I’m thankful for every moment now.”
Colonel Crawford’s Jacob Cochran was the lone senior on the two relays that earned All-Ohio honors; the 4×200 broke the school record (1:29.77) and placed fourth, while the 4×400 (3:26.72) placed seventh.
“This is the first year I’ve had a lot of guys around me that can push me,” Cochran said. “I would not be where I am without these guys, I’m super proud of all of them and I’m excited to see what they can do next year.”
Juniors Roen Thew and John DeGray, and sophomore Avery Powers joined him and it was the first time Thew and Powers got on the podium.
“It’s great, it’s everything we worked for,” Thew said.
“It’s the best race of the meet,” DeGray added after the 4×400. “It’s at the end, most people don’t want to be there, but guys like us do and we want to compete. We didn’t come out on top like we wanted, but all these other guys are great athletes just like us. Next year, we’re gonna go and chase it again.”
Hurdling their way to glory
Powers raced with Lucas junior Joey Desterhaft in the low hurdles, with Desterhaft’s fifth getting the better of him by three places. It certainly didn’t help that Powers clipped the third hurdle on the way to the finish and fell.
“It’s a little frustrating how it happened and the time I ran, but I got lucky because the kid in Lane 9 (got disqualified),” Powers said. “I felt like I was running really good and was in a great position, then on that last straight just kind of started falling apart … I think the wind got the best of me.”
Desterhaft wasn’t exactly thrilled either after a ninth-place finish in the 110-meter hurdles spoiled his chance of All-Ohio in three events.
“I felt like I really needed to prove myself after,” he said. “After that, there’s no way I could make the same mistake. I needed to just forget about and focus on this race in particular to go out as hard as I can.”
Also battling less-than-ideal positioning was Crestview senior Max Durbin, who lined up in Lane 9 for the Division IV high hurdles and then was in Lane 7 an hour later for the low hurdles.
“I didn’t like how yesterday went, my 110s were really bad, I almost ran a second faster today,” Durbin said. “I stayed off my feet, stayed out of the sun, and kept hydrating (between events).”
That worked as he placed fourth in the 110-meter hurdles (14.70) and seventh in the 300-meter hurdles (40.54) to cap off his career strong.
zholden@gannett.com | 419-617-6018 | Twitter/X: @Zachary_Holden
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Tri-County area cleaned up on Day 2 of OHSAA State Track Championships
Reporting by Zachary Holden, Mansfield News Journal / Mansfield News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Zachary Holden, Mansfield News Journal | USA TODAY Network
