Finley Blevins now owns bragging rights in her family.
The River Valley sophomore earned her first Fahey Bank Athlete of the Month Award, winning it for June among Marion County girls.
“It’s pretty big. It’s really exciting. My dad (Michael Blevins) wanted to get it really bad when he was in high school and never did,” she said. “The fact that I did is exciting for all of us. I definitely wanted to get it, especially since Eva (Moran) got it. It would have been cool for me to get it, too, and be up on the wall with her.”
Blevins earned the honor after an impressive season in track and field, advancing for the second time to the OHSAA state championships in Ohio State’s Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.
“I feel like I did pretty good. I was very consistent at 11 foot and 11-6,” she said. “I did a lot of technique improvement this year. I didn’t PR at all, but my technique and strength got a lot better. We’re looking forward to some big stuff for the next season.”
She’s already working on next season and has targeted places to improve with her form.
“I want to work on the end of my vault, coming off the top of the pole,” she said. “I tend to flag out, meaning I don’t go all the way up the pole. Getting off the top of the pole is the biggest thing I’m working on right now.”
It’s a full-time commitment. Besides working out at Buckeye Pole Vault Academy in central Ohio, she is also a gymnast at Mid Ohio Gymnastics in Marion. She’s found those two programs work well together.
“I have a lot more body awareness than non-gymnasts would have. I have a lot more strength in parts that I need,” Blevins said. “I do a lot of work. I do a lot of lifting at Buckeye Pole Vault Academy and at Mid Ohio Gymnastics. We do a lot of everything all over.”
She alternates days between the disciplines and adds in running on the track during the week, too.
“It’s a lot but I handle it pretty well,” she said.
The same could be said of her 2026 outdoor season.
Blevins was a picture of consistency.
She won her first six meets by going either 11 feet or 11-6. She was sick at the Marion County Meet and did just enough to win at 9-6 before calling it a night. She followed it with a Mid Ohio Athletic Conference championship at 11 feet then won the Division III district title at 11-6.
The night before regionals her close friend and former teammate Eva Moran died in a car accident, yet somehow, someway she produced an outdoor season-best vault of 11-8 to take a regional runner-up medal and clinch an automatic qualifying spot for state.
“That was definitely a mentally challenging day for her. She actually was able to fight through it. As a result of it, she’s a better vaulter,” RV pole vault coach Kevin Keller said the week of the state meet.
Blevins admitted it was a rough day for her at regionals.
“It was definitely really hard, but knowing that she would want me to do good and doing it all for her helped me get through it,” Blevins said. “I didn’t expect to do that good at regionals, but I think I did really well for the situation I was in.”
Moran, who just finished her freshman season as a pole vaulter at the University of Toledo, was the Division II state runner-up the previous year, while Blevins finished seventh on the podium with her as a freshman.
At state in 2026, Blevins was 10th at 10-6, missing the podium by two spots.
As she enters the final two years of her high school career and becomes an upperclassman and a leader, she wants to impart the things that were important to Moran, things she learned from her friend.
“She was really encouraging and made everyone smile. Her smile was contagious,” Blevins said. “She was really happy for everyone in everything that they did. That’s something I will always remember.”
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Fahey Bank Athlete of the Month
This article originally appeared on Marion Star: RV’s Finley Blevins wins a Fahey Bank Athlete of the Month Award
Reporting by Rob McCurdy, Marion Star / Marion Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Rob McCurdy, Marion Star | USA TODAY Network
