Saturday, May 14th, 2022
Midwest Athletic Conference Track and Field Championships
Drought ended
Flyers boys win first title in 27 years, Minster girls repeat
By Tom Haines
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard
Marion Local's Peyton Otte crosses the finish line ahead of Minster's Jack Kohne in the 4x200 relay at the Midwest Athletic Conference championships at Minster's Memorial Field on Friday.
MINSTER - The Marion Local boys track and field team came into Day 2 of the Midwest Athletic Conference championships with a 24 1/2-point lead, but coach Kyle Grabowski didn't consider it safe.
Minster made a run in the track finals, whittling the lead down to 11 1/2 points, but the Flyers held on for their first MAC boys title since 1995, while the host Wildcats took the girls title over Coldwater and Versailles at Memorial Field on Friday.
"The times coming into today were fast, but the relays from Minster and us, those were regional-type times," Marion coach Kyle Grabowski said. "We left it all out on the track there, and it was back and forth, and that was the beauty of this year. Neither Minster nor us is such a lock at any one thing, back and forth it went the entire time."
Marion earned wins in the 4x100 and 4x200 relays, while Nate Buschur reset the school record with a pole vault of 14-2. But those were the only firsts for the Flyers, who instead piled up points lower in the standings.
Noah Budde came in third in the 1,600 and fifth in the 3,200, while Troy Stucke placed in both distance events and Aaron Broering and Andrew Pohlman earned points in the 800. Peyton Moeller and Peyton Otte earned points in the 100 and Moeller and Buschur placed in the 200, while Landon Arling and Adam Winner reached the finals in the 110 hurdles and Arling joined Carter Jones in the 300 hurdles.
"Carter Jones filled a hurdle position for us and stepped up, PRed in the 300 hurdles to get sixth place," Grabowski said. "He really stepped up for us. It was all over the track … we had freshmen and sophomores step up into roles, we could see them now making that jump into the postseason elite."
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard
Minster's Alex Albers leads Fort Recovery's Trevor Heitkamp and teammate Jack Grieshop in the 1,600 at the Midwest Athletic Conference championships on Friday.
Minster got 30 points from Alex Albers, who won the 800 and the 1,600 before coming back in the 3,200, running all three distance events for the first time.
"That's the last 3,200 he's probably ever going to do in high school," Minster boys coach Larry Topp said. "In the next week, my brain might flip over, but with his ability in the mile and the 4x800 and the 400 splits… it's a nice luxury to have.
"I pulled out every stop I could, so I'm saying, don't take anything away from Marion. I pulled out all the stops to try to win today, and it just didn't come to fruition. But it was an exciting meet, all credit goes to them. They won, they were the better team - tonight."
Fort Recovery's Trevor Heitkamp led for the first mile, with Albers on his hip, and looked to open up the lead in the sixth lap before Albers closed again.
Heitkamp held him off almost all the way, but Albers turned on the jets after the third turn, overtaking Heitkamp for a two-second win.
"He is an animal," Grabowski said. "Thirty points by himself, who does that, in a conference as good as the MAC?"
Heitkamp came in under 10 minutes, topping his mark from the Knight of Columbus meet last week.
Versailles' Jack Osborne had a career day in his own right. In addition to his long jump title won on Tuesday, Osborne swept the 100, 200 and 400 dashes to score 40 of the Tigers' 113 points.
The Wildcats also got a late win from the 4x400 relay, as Joseph Slonkosky, who came in second in the 300 hurdles and third in the 110 hurdles, overtook Marion on the third turn of the anchor leg and held on for a 30-second win.
"The 300 wasn't what he should be running, and the 110s were way back from what he should be doing," Topp said. "But we had a little talk, and he got his act together. That's the fastest split he's ever run in the 4x400, so that was awesome to see. As coaches, that's all you want to see, is people who are willing to answer the bell."
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard
Minster's Margaret Hemmelgarn leads the pack in the 1,600 at the Midwest Athletic Conference championships at Memorial Field on Friday. Hemmelgarn won the 1,600 and 3,200 for the Wildcats.
The Minster girls got wins from Maggie Hemmelgarn and Taylor Roth, who both earned all-Ohio honors in the 800 last season. Roth took the win in the 800, racing out to a big lead over Coldwater's Haley Alig and the pack on the way to a six-second win.
"She's definitely stronger, faster than she's ever been," Minster girls coach Jessie Magoto said. "Definitely looking forward to seeing what she can do here in the future."
Hemmelgarn skipped the 800, opening up the lead in the third lap of the 1,600 and beating Alig by four seconds before passing Fort Recovery's Ellie Will after the first mile of the 3,200 and holding off teammate Chaney Cedarleaf the rest of the way.
"We were not quite sure (about Hemmelgarn in the 3,200)," Magoto said, "but we were trying to see where we could spread people out, and she was definitely up for the challenge."
Coldwater got wins from Tyler Schwieterman in the two hurdles events, with Schwieterman fending off a strong challenge from Versailles' Colton Reese in the 300 before pulling away down the stretch, and from Ava Giere in the 400. Heavily favored in the girls relays, the Cavaliers took first in the 4x200 and 4x400, but Fort Recovery's Allysen Fullenkamp ran down Izzy Zahn in the final stretch to capture the 4x100.
Fort Recovery also got a win from Abbie Francis in the 200. Marion's Sammy Hoelscher handily took first in the two hurdles events.
The Division III district meet get underway on Wednesday at Spencerville.
