COLUMBUS, OH — On the third day of the 2026 Ohio High School Athletic Association track and field state championships, Mother Nature gave us … two weather delays that postponed a large number of events until Sunday, June 7.
As it turns out, Divisions I and II ruled the third day of the state meet and gave Cincinnati two more state champions.
Here are a few highlights from the penultimate day of the track and field season.
St. Xavier senior Dom Ellis claims Division I 3,200-meter title
The St. Xavier senior and Indiana University commit is one step closer to finishing out one of the greatest distance running careers in school history.
He led a bevy of Cincinnati runners that included Little Miami’s Ryne Reynolds, Mason’s Caden Winship and Springboro’s Joshua Linde to the podium on Saturday afternoon.
“We have a lot of really good runners down in Cincinnati, which makes it really fun to be able to compete with them all the time. You have really good competition,” Ellis said.
Conserving his legs for two more races on Sunday, Ellis hung back in the pack, coming through 800 meters in 15th place. He quickly worked his way up to second place by the halfway mark, then led the final three laps before running the final 400 meters in 1:00.53.
“I wanted to be a bit more tactical rather than just going from the gun,” Ellis said.
He has taken that approach all season, running a total of four two-mile races, four one-mile races and two 800-meter runs.
If Ellis wins the 1,600-meter run on Sunday, he will be just the second Cincinnati boy to win the distance triple crown (cross country title, outdoor 1,600- and 3,200-meter titles). La Salle’s Doug Bockenstette did so way back in the 1993-1994 school year. Ellis has the third-best seed time entering the race. He also has the top seed time in the 800-meter run at 1:53.19.
Loveland girls 4×800 sets Division II state record
The Loveland Tigers turned to their seniors in the first championship final of the DII state meet. Delaney Cilley and Caroline Murnan didn’t let them down.
Leading off the 4×800 meter relay, Cilley split 2:16.74 on her leg, one of her fastest 800-meter times of the season. She handed off to freshman Brynleigh Scherman, who kept the lead thanks to an impressive split of 2:16.77.
“I knew we had a chance to be state champs and (Caroline) and I are both seniors. We’ve run together since seventh grade so we’ve run the 4×800 every year at state so I knew that we had to end on a good note. I was really excited to do it for all of us,” Cilley said.
While Emma Todd had the slowest split of the four at 2:21.72, she came to the exchange zone in second place and handed off to senior Caroline Murnan, who has elite speed in the 800 meters, thanks to her pedigree at 200 and 400 meters.
“I knew I had a good kick at the end, so just staying with her or in front of her was the main thing I was focusing on,” Murnan said.
The Butler University commit completed her two laps in 2:08.01, which would have been a Cincinnati city record if she were running the open 800. Over the final 200 meters, she pulled away from Big Walnut and crossed the line in a new DII state record of 9:05.14.
The quartet broke the school record with a time of 9:15.07 at regionals and had a strong final month of the season, winning a district title in 9:24.17 and an Eastern Cincinnati Conference title in 9:15.44.
Even with Cilley, Murnan and Parker Mentzer graduating, the future remains bright for Loveland’s distance crew as Scherman, Todd and freshman Abby Kaszyca are all returning.
“It’s been an incredible experience. They’re so talented and I’m so lucky that I got to run with them for their last year,” Todd said.
Talawanda’s Abra Mills caps career with third-place finish in 3,200-meter run
Talawanda has had quite the distance resurgence over the last three years thanks to Lucia Rodbro, Adriana Luking and Abra Mills.
The Ball State University commit, who spent her freshman and sophomore years living in Suffolk, England, while her dad taught math at an American school on Lakenheath Air Force Base, crossed the finish line of the 3,200-meter run in 10:37.62. Her time, which placed her third, broke a 40-year-old school record and clocked a 17-second personal best.
“I was not expecting that at all. Recently I’ve been running really well and I was just like, ‘I don’t think anybody in this race is better than me.’ I just went out with that mindset. The whole race, I was feeling great. There’s no point in holding back and staying in the back of the pack,” Mills said.
She was never in worse than ninth place but tightened the screws in the second half of the race, working her way down to lap times around 80 seconds before cruising through the final 400 meters in 1:14.92.
Despite a nearly four-hour rain delay, Mills’s family, friends and coaches stuck around to watch her race and gathered on the fence by the podium as she accepted her medal.
“They all drove the two hours. The principal of my school came. They all came to support me and they stayed through the whole rain delay to watch me race. I just felt so much love that they all stayed,” Mills said. “This year for me has been a breakthrough year. I haven’t been this fast since eighth grade.”
After coming back from England, Mills helped the Brave win back-to-back cross country regional titles. She was the 2025 regional champion and took seventh place at state and lowered her personal best to 18:12.19. She will also run the DII 1,600-meter run on Sunday after recording a personal best of 5:00.32 at the regional meet.
Which Cincinnati athletes made the podium on the third day of the 2026 OHSAA track and field state championships?
Events are listed by division, starting with DI.
DI girls 4×800 meter relay: 3. Milford (Maren Barnett, Lauren Johnson, Schylar Sperl, Elle Campbell)
DI boys 4×800 meter relay: 2. St. Xavier (Liam Holman, Aidan Dehring, Jake Molas, Dom Ellis); 3. Little Miami (Ian Patrick, Justin Evans, Ethan Greenwood, Ryne Reynolds); 8. Moeller (Brock Grubert, Preston Wesley, Duncan Shirley, Trindin Booker)
DI girls 3,200-meter run: 6. Ava Shepard, Lakota West; 7. Heidi Harmeyer, Seton
DI boys 3,200-meter run: 1. Dom Ellis, St. Xavier; 2. Ryne Reynolds, Little Miami; 4. Caden Winship, Mason; 6. Joshua Linde, Springboro
DII girls 4×800 meter relay: 1. Loveland (Delaney Cilley, Brynleigh Scherman, Emma Todd, Caroline Murnan)
DII girls 3,200-meter run: 3. Abra Mills, Talawanda
DII boys discus: 6. Ethan Schock, Goshen; 8. Hunter Ogdan, La Salle
DII girls high jump: T-6. Shylah Day, Western Brown
DII boys pole vault: T-5. Nolan Hodgson, Talawanda
DIII girls 100-meter dash: 2. Sci-Yesha Anderson, Waynesville; 8. Brilyn Foust, CHCA
DIII boys 1,600-meter run: 6. James O’Driscoll, Indian Hill
DIII girls 200-meter dash: 3. Sci-Yesha Anderson, Waynesville
DIII girls 4×400 meter relay: 4. Mercy McAuley (Alayna Crawford, Lailah Shepard, Lily Davis, Haley Murphy)
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: St. X’s Dom Ellis, Loveland relay claim titles Saturday at state meet
Reporting by Brendan Connelly, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Brendan Connelly, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
