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Fort Recovery's Isaac Roessner set a new conference meet record in the long jump at the MAC Track and Field Championships in Fort Recovery.
File photo.
Compiled by Gary R. Rasberry
The opening day of the 2026 Midwest Athletic Conference Track and Field Championships brought out the editing tools for the record book.
Records were broken in two events at Barrenbrugge Park in Fort Recovery as the majority of the field events and the 4x800-meter relays for boys and girls highlighted the day.
The host Indians came up with one record as Isaac Roessner dueled with defending champion and meet record holder Johnny Pohlman of Coldwater in the long jump. Roessner got a lead of 22 feet, 9 1/2 inches in the preliminaries to break Pohlman's record of 22-4 3/4 set a year ago. Pohlman, whose top prelim leap of 21-11 1/2 was good for second, also broke his own mark in topping out at 22-8 1/4 in the finals, but Roessner's mark held up for the title.
Minster's Sophia Dirksen leads the pack during the 4x800-meter relay at the MAC Track and Field Championships.
The other record came in the girls' 4x800 relay. The Minster quartet of Sophia Dirksen, Brynn Bornhorst, Joanna Topp and Claire Bohman was nearly 19 seconds ahead of runner-up Coldwater, finishing in 9:20.29, taking over seven seconds off the mark of 9:27.83 set in 2007 by Versailles' Mary Prakel, Kristen Schulte, Tammy Berger and Mindy Henry.
In the other boys events, Minster's Jakob Davis was a double-champion in sweeping the throwing events. In the discus, Davis reached 155-1 in the preliminaries and the mark held up through the finals to win by a four-foot margin over Coldwater's Collin Westgerdes.
Minster's Jakob Davis swept both the boys discus and shot put titles at the MAC Track and Field Championships.
Davis took the same approach in the shot put, putting his best effort up in the prelims and making the field try and top it. Davis topped out at 48-11 to win by 6 1/2 inches over Marion Local's Derek Grieshop.
Coldwater freshman Jonah Gruss earned his first MAC title in the high jump. Gruss won the competition with a top effort of 6-2, two inches ahead of runner-up Brody Barga of Fort Recovery and four inches better than older brother Nolan Gruss.
The lone boys field event not contested was the pole vault. That will take place Friday.
In the boys' 4x800, Versailles' Marcus Briscoe, Eli Dirksen, Zachary Rahm and Tony Moorman held off Minster down the stretch to take the victory in 8:03.50 with the Wildcats less than two seconds back at 8:05.27.
Coldwater's Ava Schmitmeyer won her third straight MAC pole vault championship on Tuesday in Fort Recovery.
All the girls' field events were contested on Tuesday. Coldwater's Ava Schmitmeyer earned her third MAC title in the pole vault with a top performance of 11-4, four inches ahead of Versailles' Chloe Steinbrunner.
The battle for the high jump title was a three-athlete competition of Versailles teammates Rowan Schmitmeyer and Kacey Borchers with New Knoxville's Addison Albers. All three finished with top efforts of 5-2, but Schmitmeyer won the tiebreaker on fewer misses to take first place. Albers had the tiebreaker over Borchers to take second.
Versailles added another field event title as Elli Stammen held off New Knoxville's Kinley Rutschilling and New Bremen's Mary Rindler to win the long jump. Stammen finished with a top effort of 16-10. Rutschilling was second at 16-6 1/2 while Rindler improved her best prelim effort by 6 1/4 inches in the finals to top out at 16-5 3/4.
New Knoxville's Avery Albers placed first in the girls discus at the MAC track and field meet.
New Knoxville's Avery Albers improved her preliminary best in the discus by nearly 9 feet to win the title. Avery Albers went from 124-6 in the prelims with a throw of 133-3 in the finals to win by nearly 21 feet over defending champion Paige Ontrop of Coldwater.
Marion Local freshman Audrey Kuck won her first high school conference title in the shot put, topping out at 35-8 with Ontrop taking second at 34-10.
The meet wraps up on Friday with the boys pole vault starting at 4:30 p.m. and running finals starting at 6 p.m.
