Walnut Ridge boys, Whetstone girls run to Columbus City League track and field titles
After five runner-up finishes since 2015, the Walnut Ridge boys track and field team broke through with its first City League championship Thursday at Africentric.
Led by first-place finishes from the 400- and 800-meter relays, the Scots (115 points) outdistanced runner-up Independence (93), which won the league meet a season ago. Rounding out the standings were Beechcroft (72.5), Whetstone (68), Eastmoor Academy (60), Africentric (40.5), Marion-Franklin (36), Briggs (23), Centennial (22), West (21), Northland (18), South (16), East (12), Linden-McKinley (12), Mifflin (6) and International (6).
Walnut Ridge finished second in 2022, 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2015.
“This is the first (league) title in school history,” said coach Stephen Ayers, who took over the program in 2015. “This has always been the goal. We finished runner-up five times since I’ve been here. It was frustrating because it’s hard to keep it together. You have all the pieces. It’s hard trying to put it all together and we finally did.”
Ayers is also the wrestling coach at Walnut Ridge and the football coach at Beechcroft.
For Walnut Ridge, Christian Turner, Rakim Smith, Lynel Hill and Zayvion Mallory finished first in the 400 relay (42.36) and Devon Bryant, Smith, Turner and Mallory won the 800 relay (1:29.21).
Other winners for the Scots were Kameron Mitchell in the 800 (2:03.66), Abron Davis in the 110 hurdles (15.9), Kevin Green in the shot put (49 feet, 7 ½ inches) and Taliq Burke in the high jump (6-0).
“The key is a complete team effort,” Ayers said. “We need everybody to contribute where they can contribute. Our coaches do a great job getting our kids ready and the kids are buying into our team concept because you can’t win a championship by yourself. We can’t win the team title with just one person. It has to take everybody from the throwers to the jumpers to the sprinters to distance, and everybody bought in all season long.”
Walnut Ridge opens the postseason Tuesday in the Division I, District 4 meet at Westerville North.
Other individual winners were Marion-Franklin's Dawayne Galloway in the 100 (10.74) and Jeremiah Jones in the discus (146-9), Beechcroft's Tyrell Russell in the 200 (22.09) and Khalil Samuel in the 300 hurdles (41.16), Africentric's Jayden Smith in the 400 (50.4), Whetstone's Owen Lundine in the 1,600 (4:45.62), Linden's Philip Towns in the 3,200 (11:02.82) and Independence's Antonio Weaver in the long jump (22-4 1/2).
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Whetstone girls defend City League championship
Led by its talented group of distance runners, Whetstone easily repeated as champion with 174 points, ahead of Walnut Ridge (91.5), Independence (87.5), Eastmoor (78), Beechcroft (61), Africentric (28), South (27), Northland (20), Marion-Franklin (14), Centennial (12), East (9), Linden (6), Briggs (5), Mifflin (2) and International (2).
For Whetstone, Miriam Rule won the 1,600 (5:17.15) and 3,200 (11:47.21) and Sophia Nelson finished first in the 800 (2:26.98).
Rule, Nelson, Ava Feller and Katinka Moritz won the 3,200 relay (10:19.87), Nelson, Avah Mathis, Kaia Price and Naifa Kisembo finished first in the 1,600 relay (4:47) and Karleighiah Jenkins, Nakya Simington, Janyia Locke and Catherine Pierce won the 400 relay (50.77).
Jenkins won the 100 hurdles (17:15) and Simington finished first in the 300 hurdles (48.27).
“Winning the league meet this year was what the girls worked so hard for all season,” coach Joe Monda said. “It was really satisfying in that we scored in every event, and it was a great way to start the (championship season).”
Whetstone opens the postseason Tuesday in the Division I, District 1 meet at Hilliard Darby.
Independence’s Lillian Hurd won the 100 (12.58), 200 (25.88) and 400 (58.56) and ran on the first-place 800 relay (1:46.39).
Other individual winners were Eastmoor's Janih'Ya Campbell in the shot put (37-8 1/2), Mali Thornton in the discus (120-1) and Jhadayah Curtis in the high jump (5-0) and Africentric's Ashtan Winfrey in the long jump (18-11).
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Walnut Ridge boys, Whetstone girls win City League track titles
