Crestview sends two relays, two individuals to state after nabbing fourth consecutive regional title
HEATH - Field events alone would've placed Crestview fifth at the Division III regional meet.
"Wade Bolin has been clutch for us all year, he had a great meet," coach Tim Kuhn said. "Liam (Kuhn) in the pole vault has been solid all year. We're strong in the field, and the events we brought down here we did really well in."
Bolin swept the throws winning discus (178-04) by nearly 14 feet on Wednesday and followed it up with a three-and-a-half foot win in the shot put. And Liam Kuhn was 6-for-7 on attempts in the pole vault missing his first try at 13-04 before soaring over 13-08 and 14-00 for a regional title.
"Not my two best marks, but I'm happy with them," Bolin said. "They get me to the next week and that's really the main goal — just survive and advance."
His shot put wasn't quite as clean as Kuhn's vault attempts were having faulted his second and third throw of his flight, then his opening attempt in finals before collecting himself and registering throws of 54-05½ and his winning throw of 58-00 — Bolin's opening throw of 57-00½ would've been enough for a regional title.
"(I was) just trying to think and rewind myself back into the throw to see what I did wrong and just try and fix those cues next throw," he said. "That's about all I can do right now.
"There was definitely some good competition, pushing each other and pushing all of us. It's really fun with all the guys actually having good competition and being able to stick up with each other. It's always way more fun when you have that."
Crestview accumulated an additional 21 points to the 30 Bolin and Kuhn combined for en route to its fourth consecutive regional team championship.
The 4x800 relay of Cooper Brockway, Bransen Hider, Evertt Smith and Logan Friges edged out Mechanicsburg by less than a second in Wednesday's final for 10 points and regional gold, then the 4x400 relay of Ayden Reymer, Smith, Brockway, Friges added five more points in the final event with a fourth-place finish.
"It was a great team effort," coach Kuhn said. "We're pretty well-rounded and we knew that last race depended upon our two guys that just got done running the 800. They bucked up, came through for us and got us a chance to get down to the state meet."
Friges and Brockway had just finished sixth and eighth respectively in the half-mile, then had a relatively quick turnaround before running the final two legs of the 4x4.
"It's a mental challenge," coach Kuhn said. "You put everything out there in the 800 and our kid that made it to state last year (Friges), didn't make it. So there's that self-doubt that creeps in and as a coach you've got to go over and let them know that anything's possible for one lap. We just had to get him back on track and let him know that he was read, he could do it, he could be our closer.
"And he did it. It's tough to put it all out there and run as hard as you can for two laps, then get about 30 minutes of recovery time."
Also scoring for the Cougars was Liam Kuhn who placed seventh in the 110-meter hurdles.
Crestview will send Bolin in both throws, Kuhn in the pole vault, along with the 4x4 and 4x8 relays to Dayton next weekend for the state track meet.
Inherently there's always going to be pressure, but Kuhn hopes his qualifiers just enjoy the experience.
"You just got to let it fly when you get down there," he said. "The hardest part of state is getting down there. The best part is just being relaxed and letting yourself do what you're capable of doing, not succumbing to that pressure. They've both got state meet experience, so I think that's one thing that helps them. I'm sure the nerves will be there, it's just fine-tuning a few things here or there like they've been doing it all year.
"Hopefully they'll go high, run fast and throw far next week."
Lucas' Case, Plymouth's Bushey book return flights to state
Having qualified as a sophomore and junior respectively last season, Lucas pole vaulter Bekah Case and Plymouth high jumper Layne Bushey will be heading back to the grand finale of track season.
Case passed on the first six heights opting to enter at 10-04 which she cleared on the first attempt, along with 10-08. At 11-00 she struggled her first two tries before soaring over the bar on the third attempt. Having already locked up a top-four finish, Case cleared 11-04 with ease before bowing out at 11-08 for a third place finish.
Bushey was part of one of the most competitive high jump regionals in the state. Clearing 5-08 and 5-10, he needed a pair of attempts to get over 6-00 and 6-02 before ascending over 6-04 on his first try to secure at least a top four finish. He would miss all three attempts at 6-03 and finish fourth due to Buckeye Trail's Charlie Perry having clean clears up to the final jumps.
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This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Crestview boys win fourth consecutive regional track title
