Zachary Holden|Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum
PORT CLINTON —The girls from Colonel Crawford were the ones standing atop the podium at the end of the night Friday atthe Division III regional meet, but it was a girl from Lucas who stole the show.
Junior Shelby Grover not only won two regional titles at Port Clinton High School on the second day of regionals, but she beat out one of the best track and field athletes in the state of Ohio — Colonel Crawford's Katie Ruffener — in the process.
Her evening started with the long jump where a 17-9½ in preliminaries wound up being enough for a regional title as Grover didn't even need to jump later in the meet in the finals. Of course,she decided to anyway. And, to make that even more impressive, Grover didn't even place a year ago.
"Long jump last year I made it to the finals but I didn't even podium," she said."Now being a regional champ means so much to me. It gives me a lot of confidence going into Jesse Owens to hopefully place."
Grover followed that up with an impressive showing in the 100-meterhurdles, finishing just .63 seconds behind unofficial state record-holderRuffener. She then decided to have the race of her life in the 300 hurdles, overcoming a slow start to chase down Ruffener in the final stretch and then using a slight lean of the upper body to win by one-hundredth of a second.
"She starts out super good and my start wasn't as good, so I just tried to stay as close as I could get. Then at the end I had to give my final push and leave it all on the track to try to beat her.
"Katie is phenomenal, she's such a good hurdler. But it does give me a lot of confidence going to Jesse Owens knowing I PR'd. If I can keep PRing and keep getting better as it goes on up to the most important time of the year."
She made it 4-for-4 for the day with a runner-up finish in the 200 meters, and two golds and two silvers was quite the showing for the talented Cub. Lucas as a team finished fifth with 38 points, 36 of them from Grover. Freshman Rebekah Case earnedthe other two in the pole vault.
"I'm very blessed," Grover said."I was nervous for the 200 because I was in sixth place with 50 meters to go, but I knew I had to push to get my goal. And I did that."
Eagles soaraway at the end
It all started Wednesday with a stellar performance in the high jump as Liv Krassow walked off a repeat regional champion by clearing 5-6 on her final attempt after skipping her third try at 5-5. Teammate Niyah Shipman was runner-up at 5-5 by virtue of attempts over Carey's Lexi Plott.
Julia Feik also secured a runner-up finish in the shot put with a throw of 39-¼ to punch her ticket to Jesse Owens Memorial Stadiumfor the very first time.
"That's the No. 1 place I've always wanted to go to," she said."We've driven by to go to the Schott for different events — PBR a couple times, monster trucks, Disney on Ice — but just driving by Jesse you think about how cool it would be to go there.
"Top nine is the first priority, then hopefully top four. I already looked ahead, (and) I'll be lucky if I make top nine to be honest. But it's worth a shot, and I get to go to Jesse Owens — that's the coolest part."
Although the 4x800 relay of Cecelia Chase, Olivia Hardy, Gabby Roston, Izzy Roston placed fifth, missing the final qualifying spot by one, the quartet earned four valuable points for the Eagles.
That lead carried over into Friday as Corin Feik placed third in the discus for more valuable points and, most importantly, a state berth alongside twin sister Julia.
"In finals I threw a 122," Corin said."Top four went 116, 122, 123, 125, so it was really close. I can't even explain how I feel right now I'm so excited."
And as excited as she was after the fact, leading up to her throws Corin said she felt the pressure creeping in.
"I had so much support frommy neighbors. They kept telling me I could make it with my sister," she said."But the more I thought about it, if I don't do it I'm going to let a bunch of people down."
Across the complex at the long jump, reigning regional champion Ruffener leapt 16-9½ to place third behind Grover and South Central's Angela Williams. She won her regional title in the 100 hurdles before nabbing two regional runner-up finishes in the 100 to Margaretta's Kenna Stimmel and the 300 hurdles to Grover.
"It's kind of what I expected," Ruffener said."Well, not expected, but they're good and I'm good.
"I know we all put in the work that needs to be done. I'm not mad about it."
After dominating throughout the season, regionals might've been just the gut-check Ruffener needed to head into state on a mission to have more than one gold medal draped around her neck by weekend's end at Jesse Owens.
"It's also about who has the better day usually at that kind of meet," she said."I'm very excited because it's a way better atmosphere than it was last year."
Gabby Roston cleared 11-0 in the pole vault to place third, and the 4x400 relay of Rylee Ritzhaupt, Gabby Roston, Mira Holt, Lynae McKibben was fourth to secure the final state qualifying spot of the meet.
Colonel Crawford's 84 points bested runner-up Margaretta by 16 to give the Eagles the regional championship.
Crestview clutch in Chillicothe
It came down to the final race of the day – literally. Mount Gilead led Crestview by half a point entering the 4x400 relay, only needing to finish ahead of the Cougars for a regional title.
But as it has all season, Crestview dug deep and did just enough to steal away the crown from Mount Gilead and qualify for state in one more event as the foursome of Caden Cunningham, Tommy O'Neill, Gabe Smedley and Everett Smith placed third to give the Cougars 66.5 points to Mount Gilead's 65.
The 4x800 relay of O'Neill, Logan Friges, Cooper Brockway, Smedley placed second on Wednesday, and O'Neill was a runner-up in the 1,600. Connor Morse, Addison Reymar, Tanner Moore and Wade Bolin placed fourth in the 4x100 relay. Bolin also won the discus with a throw of 165-5 — the second-place throw was 152-8 — and was second in the shot with teammate Noah Stuart behind in third.
Finally, pole vaulter ShawnBailey placed third to round out the Cougars' state qualifiers.
Other state qualifiers
Colonel Crawford's 4x100 relay of Jacob Awbrey, Carter Valentine, Caulen Spangler, Ethan Holt won a regional title to go with its district crown, and Trevor Vogt earned an at-large bid in the 110 and 300 hurdles.
Plymouth's Caiden Allen placed fourth in the 100 (11.25), Mansfield St. Peter's Peyton Bodnar advanced in the 200 and 400 with two third-place finishes, and Lucas' Grant Barrett finished third in the discus throw.
Crestview's Morgan Welch was third in the 1,600 in Port Clinton.
zholden@gannett.com
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Twitter: @Zachary_Holden
