Bloom-Carroll’s Dominic Knapp won the state championship in the Division III boys pole vault, going 15 feet, 10 inches on June 5.
Two days later, Lancaster’s Gabe McNeil also landed atop the podium with a state championship in the Division I boys 800-meter run with a time of 1 minute, 52.46 seconds.
However, those two weren’t the only ones producing results from the Lancaster area at Ohio State’s Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium June 4-7. Thirteen individual athletes and five relay teams claimed 19 spots on the podium for their events at the OHSAA Jesse Owens State Track and Field Championships.
Here’s a rundown of how those athletes placed:
Garrabrant jumps bigger than himself
Fisher Catholic senior Nolan Garrabrant stands 6-foot-1. Nevertheless, he jumped 6-8 during the Division V boys high jump on June 5.
“It’s all the training and watching all the film of my previous jumps,” Garrabrant said. “It’s knowing I can get up there. I’ve just got to get over it when I get up there.”
He got over it a bunch on Friday.
Garrabrant made his first attempts at 6 feet, 6-2 and 6-4. He missed first attempts at 6-6 and 6-7, but advanced on his second tries at both heights. He nailed 6-8 on his first pass, too.
“I was confident. I had all my friends telling me I was going to do it. That’s all I needed to hear,” he said.
Despite brushing the bar on a couple of his successful jumps, Garrabrant ended as the runner-up in the event, one inch behind Calvin Willow of Arlington.
“Just knowing that it’s bouncing means I have a chance to make it even if it fell. I knew I was going to be all right even if (the bar) bounced a couple of times,” he said.
Last year he finished tied for fourth at state with a then-personal record of 6-6. He reset that mark twice on Friday.
“Good day. Can’t ask for much more than two PRs in the same meet,” Garrabrant said.
Buckley looking forward to more state berths
Minutes after her season came to an end, Amanda-Clearcreek sophomore Samantha Buckley said she couldn’t wait to get back on the track.
“This definitely gives me a lot of confidence,” she said. “I’m looking forward to indoor season next year and outdoors. Knowing what I achieved this year, it can only go up from here. It gives me a lot of determination to keep sticking to the hard work that pays off. If I keep with it, I hope it will be a lot more PRs.”
Buckley was competing for the first time at the state meet, but that didn’t stop her from advancing out of the prelims and eventually landing on the podium in the Division IV girls 100-meter hurdles. She timed a personal best 15.2 seconds to finish fourth.
“I know on such a big stage with other great girls running together, I knew I could set a big PR. That’s what I did today with the help of them,” she said. “We all ran a lot of PRs today, so fourth was definitely a lot higher than I expected. I was just happy to be in the finals as a sophomore.”
Other Lancaster-area placers
Amanda-Clearcreek’s Gavynn Sowers was a two-time All-Ohioan by landing on a pair of podiums. She was fifth in the Division IV girls 1600 in 5 minutes, 3.5 seconds and seventh in the 800 in 2:19.71.
Max Harris of Liberty Union was sixth in the D-IV boys pole vault at 14-0.
For Fairfield Union, Grant Gobert was tied for fifth in the Division III boys pole vault at 14-10, while Vera Henderly was sixth in the girls 3200 at 11:06.86, and Logan Osborn was sixth in the boys 400 at 48.9.
Lancaster saw four other individuals besides McNeil make the podium. Harper Allen was fifth in the Division I girls 1600 at 4:56.15, Alexa Lupe sixth in the girls pole vault at 11-6, Quinton Green seventh in the boys long jump at 22-2 1/2 and Wyatt Krutsch seventh in the boys pole vault at 14-0.
Among relays, Lancaster’s boys 4×800 was fifth in 7:44.71 and its girls 4×800 was eighth in 9:22.28. Fairfield Union’s boys and girls ran in the 4×800 races in D-III as the girls were fourth in 9:32.47 and the boys were fifth in 7:53.96. Fisher Catholic’s boys were seventh in the D-V 4×800 relay in 8:11.39.
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This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Lancaster area gets 19 podium finishes at the 2026 state track meet
Reporting by Rob McCurdy, Marion Star / Lancaster Eagle-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Rob McCurdy, Marion Star | USA TODAY Network
