The OVAC is not just about the high school athletes of the Valley. They host events for middle school student athletes as well. They host a cheerleading competition, cross country championship and also a track and field meet. This years’ meet was moved to a Friday to accommodate weather conditions that changed the dates of the high school meet. It was a beautiful Friday evening at a great venue in St. Clairsville.
This years’ meet saw 32 teams, 1,999 participants, from Ohio and West Virginia compete in 32 events. Great job to Jerry Narcisi and the meet staff in running this meet in just over 5 hours. The OVAC would like to grow the event even more next year. Possibly getting more West Virginia schools involved as only 8 of the teams were from West Virginia.
It seems maybe the high school athletes were following in their younger cohorts steps on Saturday as some records fell on Friday night as well. Starting with the girls’ disc record, Bailey Anderson of Cambridge threw the plate 106’5” to break the stadium and championship records by over 10 feet. If it weren’t for Anderson’s impressive performance, Steubenville’s Bri Hudson would have broke the record with a throw of 101’1”.
Christien Hannahs was not to be outdone on the boys’ end of the throw events. He broke the stadium and championship record in the shot with a put of 45’3.5”. But, as it was with the girls’, Brody Kerns of Union Local would have broken the stadium and championship mark with a put of 44’8.5”.
The distance racers were next in line for records to be broken. On the girls end Sherrard’s Zoe Zervos had a great evening. Zervos broke the 800-meter stadium record and championship record with a time of 2:30.63. She would have also broken the 1600 meter run record by 12 seconds had it not been for Caldwell’s Ida Estadt who finished 1st in the mile with a 5:27.94. Estadt finished second to Zervos in the 800 with a time of 2:34.58. It was great watching these two compete. Gavin Scott of Brooke broke the stadium and championship meet records in the boys’ mile with a time of 4:46.08. Micah Gainer of St. Francis finished first in the 800 with a record-breaking time of 2:15.16 and would have broke the mile time as well with a 4:46.29, he ended up second.
More records were broken on the relay end of the event as well. In the girls’ 4×100 relay the Steubenville team of Jazmin Montgomery, Addison Ramsey, Jazmyn Brown, and Za’Harrayah Herring broke the tape in 53.38 to break the stadium and championship records. Steubenville broke the 4×200 relay championship meet record via the team of Montgomery, Ramsey, Gena Smith, and Adrianna Crabtree running a 1:57.51. Martins Ferry shined in the 4×400 relay in breaking the championship meet record in a time of 4:37.67. This team was made up of Gracie Lucas, Cadence Oberle, Ireland Jennette, and Paisley Coe. Replace Lucas with Claire Eddy and this same group smashed the 4×800 record for the stadium and championship meet in a blazing time of 10:43.78, beating the record by nearly 30 seconds.
On the boys’ end the 4×400 meet and stadium record fell to the Steubenville team of Landon Crosier, Landon Bowers, Tajon Hyton, and Ziare Scurry when they broke the line in 3:44.05. The Bellaire boys were next in line to break a record. Kole Gonglik, Braeden Schmidli, Rylin McMahon, and Raekwon Pettigrew ran the 4×800 meter relay in 9:23.05 setting the new record for the stadium and the meet.
For the sprint events, a couple of records were set on this day was in the boys’ 200-meter dash. Barnesville’s Evan Carpenter set a new mark with a time of 24.41. Carpenter also finished second in the 100 and 400. The 400-meter stadium mark was set by Steubenville’s Ziare Scurry in 55.55. Scurry would have also scurried his way to a record in the 200 if it weren’t for Carpenter, he finished second in the event. On the girls’ side Sherrard’s Sarah Hess did have an impressive performance winning both the 100- and 200-meter sprints.
Team rankings for the girls’ ended with Steubenville winning the event with 101 points. Finishing runners up were the Rams from Sherrard. They finished their season with a Barnesville Invitational Championship, a Running with the Rams Championship, and a PAC 8 Championship. The Barnesville Shamrocks won the boys’ side with 98 points. While the Big Reds of Steubenville finished in second place.
Discussion about this post