Old relay-able: Colonel Crawford sends seven relays to state
HEATH - Colonel Crawford's Adam Scott wasn't feeling great ahead of Friday's Division III regional meet.
"I had a cold," he said.
His coaches advised him to drop the 800-meter run and rest up before showing up at Heath High School later in case he was needed in the 4x400 relay.
Little did he know he'd be racing in the most competitive finish of the day anchoring the 4x4 to a third place finish securing a coveted spot at the state meet. A mere .24 seconds separated third from sixth at the finish line.
"Coach (Todd Roston) told me before the race that a couple years ago (Dominic Erlsten at Galion) was pretty sick and he ended up PR-ing by 15 seconds," Scott said. "That inspired me and made me run pretty well."
Knowing he'd need a strong finish, Scott dug deep and pushed himself to the limit on the home stretch.
"That last 100 was pretty competitive, but I pushed pretty good," he said. "It was just a good race."
It was the seventh and final relay Colonel Crawford qualified for the state meet after the boys were runner-up in the 4x200 (Brady Hill, Jacob Cochran, John Degray, Trevor Vogt) and third in the 4x100 (Ryan McMichael, Cochran, Lucas Foy, Vogt).
The girls are sending all four with the 4x800 (Cecelia Chase, Brynn Bruner, Olivia Hardy, Rylinn Edgington) winning a regional title on Wednesday and the 4x100 (Mira Holt, Ayla McKibben, Gabby Roston, Hailey Slagle) winning one on Friday. 4x200 (Hardy, Lynae McKibben, Ayla McKibben, Holt) was fourth and the 4x400 (Hardy, Lynae McKibben, Roston, Holt) was runner-up by .13 seconds — this result also saw Coal Grove Dawson-Bryant steal the regional title away by a point winning the final event.
"They knew they had to win the race to win the meet," coach Preston Foy said. "And when we lost by one point I just told them to have no regrets, you ran as hard as you can. We knew we were going to be in the top four, so just go for it and see what happens. They actually ran a faster time than they ran last year in the 4x4 at the regional finals, and that was a team that broke the school record last year. It was pretty impressive.
"Losing by one point stinks, but Dawson-Bryant dropped the baton in the 4x1 and they're a very good 4x1 team that could probably beat us."
The Eagles gave it their all for team supremacy on Friday with Holt closing a huge gap over the final 300 meters of the 4x4.
"When people started passing me, adrenaline just kicks in," Holt said, she was fifth after the first turn. "I've been running the 400 since I started tracking eighth grade, so I knew I'd have a finish. Coming around the end with people and the girls there, just knowing I have a team to run for really just helped me push at the end to get us in a better place.
"We knew if we beat them we'd win the regional title, so seeing her out in front of me … if I had a couple more steps, maybe, but it definitely was another push."
Holt is the one constant in all three sprint relays leading off the 4x1 then anchoring the 4x2 and 4x4.
"At districts I fouled all my jumps in long jump, so I didn't make it here," Holt said. "But having three relays to run for, it's always more fun to run with the team. And at Crawford, we pride ourselves on the relays, so being able to run in all three of them is an honor. I just want to do it for my girls on the team."
The odd relay out was the boys 4x800 comprised of Shawn Auck, Braeden Grau, Adam Scott and Landon Strausbaugh that finished 13th on Wednesday.
"But they are all underclassmen," Foy said. "It's just really fun when you have relays, it makes the whole experience so much better."
Niyah Shipman advanced in the high jump (5-02) on Wednesday and secured an at-large bid in the long jump (16-10½) Friday after finishing fifth, Gabby Roston was runner-up in the pole vault clearing 11-04, and Trevor Vogt was runner-up in the 300-meter hurdles to give the Eagles more state qualifiers.
"It's just about surviving each week," Foy said. "We tell the kids there's gonna be bullets flying, a lot of teams had bad days on Wednesday in regional semis, so we just had to stay focused and do our job. It was a great team effort today.
"Everybody was cheering for everyone, there's a lot of families here from Colonel Crawford here, Eagle nation which is pretty awesome."
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This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Colonel Crawford girls finish as regional runner-up
