COLUMBUS — For just the second time in Shelby girls track and field history, the Whippets are bringing home a state relay championship.
The insanely fast quartet of Princess Timko, Karlie Walp, Ashley Montgomery and Madison Henkel won the Division III 4×100-meter relay championship at the Jesse Owens Ohio High School Athletic Association State Track and Field Championships at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium on the campus of The Ohio State University on Saturday, June 6.
“I am so excited,” Timko said. “My nerves were at an all-time high when I was getting ready to hand it off to Ashley but when I saw Madison cross and our time be a sub-48, I was so happy and thankful that I cried a little bit. It was so emotional.”
As the relay’s tone setter and Leg 1 runner, Timko let her emotions fly as soon as she handed the baton off to Montgomery.
“I needed to calm myself down so I did some of our RPR breathing and I was able to get calmed down and push through my race,” Timko said. “I am so happy to do this together.”
The team ran a blistering time of 47.76 to become just the second state relay championship squad joining the 4×200-meter relay team of Betsy Grove, Kelsey Hartings, Jessica McClish and Tiffany Adkins from 2003.
“God is so good and it is such a blessing just to be here,” Montgomery said. “I trust these girls with my life. They are my sisters and our bond is crazy and I couldn’t have done anything without these three.”
The 4×100-meter relay team has been a mismatched bunch all season long rotating in different runners in nearly every meet, but one thing remained the same, they won every single time they stepped on the track.
The won at the 58th Ontario Relays with a 49.64, the 94th Mehock Relays with a 49.87, the Triway Invite with a 48.84 and the Bellevue Elks Invite with a 49.12 to cap off a successful regular season.
When the team entered the postseason, it won the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference championship with a 49.59 before cruising to a Division III district championship with a 48.60.
Junior speedster Karlie Walp joined the relay team for the regional meet after the completion of her softball season and the Whippets dropped some serious time when she was inserted into the third leg of the race as the group won the Division III regional championship at Piqua High School by running 48 seconds flat. The regional finals was just the fifth time the group had actually run together in a true meet setting.
“I wasn’t with them all season, so for them to trust me to come in and contribute is a testament to these girls,” Walp said. “They trusted me to get the handoffs down quickly. Yeah, we ran together at regionals and in indoor, but it wasn’t easy to get back in the groove. I am so thankful to be given this opportunity to win a state title with my friends.”
Timko, Montgomery, Walp and Henkel ran together at the Ontario Relays, the Mehock and Triway invites before running in the regional prelims and finals.
The sixth time was perfection and led to the 2026 Division III state championship. It came on the heels of a disqualification in the 2025 district meet that likely ended a potential state championship run before it even started. Henkel saw the Whippets use last year’s misfortune as burning fuel.
“We came in with a chip on our shoulder and really proved ourselves today,” Henkel said. “I am so proud of each one of my teammates. I was here as a freshman in the 4×100 and since then, we haven’t been able to come back here, so to win it all today shows how mentally tough we are.”
But would they have won it in 2025, too, had they not been disqualified?
“It is hard to say,” Henkel said. “We were really good and we had Ava Bowman on our team, who is an amazing runner and a huge part of our success last year. It’s hard telling, but we came out today and proved we could do it.”
It also came on the heels of a four-hour delay that saw the Whippets be forced to sit around and wait after watching Henkel win the state title in the long jump, which started at 9:30 a.m.
Though it all, they kept their faith and it took them to the top of the podium at the Jesse O.
“Before every race, we tell each other that God is good and he has already written our outcome,” Walp said. “So, we just needed to stay together and use that to climb up. Today was so weird with a four-hour delay and going from a time schedule to a running clock makes it so insane that we pulled it all together.”
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Shelby Girls Track and Field State Championship History
Individual and Relay State Champions: Lisa Smith, 1989, 3,200-meter run; Allsion Booth, 2002 and 2003, Discus; Allison Booth, 2003, Shot Put; Betsy Grove, Kelsey Hartings, Jessica McClish Tiffany Adkins, 2003, 4×200-meter relay; Madison Henkel, 2025, Long Jump; Madison Henkel, 2026, Long Jump; Madison Henkel, Karlie Walp, Princess Timko, Ashley Montgomery, 2026, 4×100-meter relay.
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Shelby girls 4×100 nets just second relay state title in program history
Reporting by Jake Furr, Mansfield News Journal / Mansfield News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jake Furr, Mansfield News Journal | USA TODAY Network
