Girls State Track Day 1: Wingate runs down the field to lead 4x800 relay to second place

COLUMBUS — As Jaylee Wingate crossed the finish line Friday, she turned and looked at the scoreboard at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.

The Norwayne senior knew she passed a handful of runners in her final leg of the 4x800-meter relay.

Exactly what she accomplished; she wasn't exactly sure until she saw just one school's name on the results board.

"I saw the board and the only one up there was Minster, so I was like wait a second, that means we're second," Wingate said. "I had to do some quick math there."

Wingate's final leg helped the group, which included Annabel Stanley, Corrine McCall and Lillith Dreibelbis to a season-best 9:38.30 and runner-up honors in Division III action at the OHSAA State Championships.

And it was the Tennessee recruit, who got the baton with the team in 14th place overall, that one-by-one started to hunt down runners ahead of her.

With Minster having already won in an impressive 9:19.85, Wingate made her final move as she passed both Mogadore's Ari Tompkins and Fort Loramie's Mylee Shatto to earn the silver medal for the relay unit.

"Once I got to the 100, I was like, 'Sure, why not? I'm here. I might as well get two more,'" she said. "I crossed the finish line, and I was like, 'Wait, what place are we in?' And then I was like, 'Oh shoot, we're in second.' I was so scared. I thought we were in sixth."

Stanley, the other senior on the relay who ran the lead leg, could only anxiously watch Wingate's final lap around the track before leading McCall and Dreibelbis in a celebration alongside the track.

"I was really excited," Stanley said. "I knew that my teammates would push themselves, do the best that they could, and watching Jaylee is always amazing.

"Running it really hurt, but we knew we had to do this," she added. "We had to do it for the team. And we did it and we're hoping to do some damage team-wise."

Rittman's grouping of Pyper Gibson, Caroline Kennel, Brooke Bowlby and Merrick Gibson missed All-Ohio honors by 0.53 seconds to Garaway. The group, which was as high as fourth overall early in the race, finished ninth in 9:49.79.

Combined with their second-place run in the 4x8, the Bobcats stormed out to an early lead in the team standings thanks to a pair of podium finishes from Allison Morlock.

The senior thrower placed seventh in both the discus and shot put, enough to help Norwayne finish the opening day with 12 team points. Only Lucas (15.5) and Dixie (14) has more team points after Day 1 action.

And Morlock needed some late-round heroics as her final throw of each competition helped her to get into the finals and earn her first two career All-Ohio medals. The senior recorded a mark of 124-feet-6 in the discus, followed by a 39-7½ in the shot.

Dalton’s Marley Clark was 17th in the shot (34-6¾).

“It only takes one and that one was it and I needed them,” Morlock said. “I just needed to relax and go throw, because when you start thinking too much, it's not fun anymore. When you're relaxed, that's when you hit the marks that you want to hit.

“I'm on the podium and that was my goal for this year and here we are.”

The Bobcats will look to add to that lead in Saturday’s final-day as both the 4x1 and 4x2 relay teams advanced to finals with strong preliminary runs, the 400-meter group finishing third overall in 50.40, while the 800-meter unit had the eighth-fastest time (1:46.89). Wingate will also compete in the 800 and 1,600, with Stanley running in the 3,200 final.

Smithville senior Abby Hartzler also earned all-state honors on Friday, clearing 5-2 on her second try to finish eighth overall.

Hartzler and her coach, Kristie Mahas, initially thought she was in the ninth-place position — one spot outside of a podium spot — but pleasantly were surprised after crunching the numbers.

“We gave each other a hug and she was like, 'Yeah, you got ninth,'” Hartzler said of the conversation. “Then we did a little math and realized that I got eighth, so I hopped over to mom to show her that I got eighth. They already knew because they had live results.

“My goal this year was to just get on the podium, which I did, and I'm excited.”

The pole vault was also a final in D-III as Dalton’s Mackenna Thiel led all locals with a 13th-place jump of 10 feet. Both Norwayne’s Kendra Berger and Waynedale’s Anna Pittman tied for 16th with 9-foot marks. Kenzie Cutlip of Loudonville also competed in the long jump and was 15th (16-3).

Dalton’s Brianna Chenevey will be busy on Saturday as the senior advanced to the finals in both the 100 (3rd, 12.13) and 200 (2nd, 24.91), along with anchoring the 4x1 relay to the fastest overall time in 49.40.

Fellow 12th grader Lauren Clos, a member of that 4x1 relay, is excited to get one more chance to run with the team.

“Courtney had a great block start and caught some on the stagger, then a great handoff,” she said. “I was just trying to run really fast to get to Macy and we had a clean handoff and then Bri just killed it.

“We've been thinking about this all year, it's been our goal, so we know we just have to achieve it.”

Junior Maddy Lengacher of Smithville also advanced after her prelim time 57.71 in the 400 helped her tie for the second-best run.

Also in D-III on Friday, Loudonville’s Corri Vermilya came up just short of moving on to finals in the 100 and 300 hurdles, along with Norwayne’s 4x4.

A pair of locals also competed in finals on the D-II side — Chippewa’s Jaclyn Jundzilo in the discus and West Holmes’ Laney Huff in the high jump. Jundzilo had a throw of 101-9 to place 16th, with Huff finishing 17th after clearing 5 feet.

Triway’s 4x1 (14th, 50.62), West Holmes’ 17th, 4:13.69) just missed advancing, along with Chippewa sprinter Abby Blaz (15th, 26.13).

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Girls Track and Field: Wingate's relay run highlights Day 1