FINDLAY – Call them Fremont’s Fearsome Foursome.
Throughout the track and field season, Olivia DeRodes, McKela Elder, Matt Kuyken and AnneMarie Moses have done little else but bring home first-place finishes.
Fremont Ross’ McKela Elder, far right, leads the pack in the 800 run Friday at the Division 1 district meet.
They continued their fantastic seasons this week at the Division I district meet at Findlay, where each of them came home as a district champion.
DeRodes claimed first-place in the high jump Wednesday night, clearing 5-feet, 3-inches.
Elder, with a time of 2 minutes, 21.22 seconds win the 800 run. In the boys 800, Kuyken rallied in the race’s final 40 meters to come from behind to take the championship.
“I wasn’t sure if anybody from behind me was going to kick it in or not, so I just decided to really push it to make sure no one passed me,” Kuyken said. “Then I saw the opportunity to pass, so I took it.”
Making Kuyken’s win all the more impressive was he did so while nursing a hamstring injury, which he strained in practice on Monday.
Olivia DeRodes
AnneMarie Moses
“I wish I had a hamstring problem like that,” said boys track and field coach John Elder.
Moses, who won the pole vault, set a new Findlay stadium record, clearing a height of 11 feet, 6 inches, a foot and a half more than her closest competition.
Not bad considering rain started to fall just about the time Moses began competing, continuing a season-long trend of Moses having to compete in less-than-ideal conditions – if at all.
“The rain really was very inconvenient, but it turned out all right, I guess,” Moses said. “But I had Isaac (Smith) holding my umbrella, helped me a out a little, but the rain really gets to the mental part of it.
“This season has been pretty rough weather-wise but we’ve been able to battle through it.”
Matt Kuyken
McKela Elder
With district championships to their credit, DeRodes, Elder, Kuyken and Moses will each enter next week’s regional meet at Amherst looking to punch their tickets to the state meet.
“I definitely feel like I can (qualify for state), but you can’t be too sure,” Moses said. “You have to stay focused and go in confident but you have to stick to it because anything can happen.”
Jahns takes second in the shot put
If told, at the beginning of the season, she’d place second in the shot put in the district meet and qualify for the regional meet, Emma Jahns wouldn’t have believed it.
“I probably would have laughed,” she said.
But no one was laughing Wednesday when Jahns throw traveled 34 feet, 5.5 inches, a personal-best throw by more than a foot.
“It just pops out of your hand and you think, ‘Oh, that’s going to be a good one,’” she said of her throw. “And it landed and I was like, ‘That was a nice one.’”
Emma Jahns
Jahns has experienced a surge in recent weeks, as she also took third in the TRAC champions meet last week. The trick, she said, was stop worrying about the small details.
“Toward the end of the season I just stopped focusing so much on what I was doing and went out there and threw it,” she said. “I was over-thinking.”
Ross girls head coach, and throwing coach, Travis Bates said Jahns needed to get out of her own way.
“A lot of times they’re their own worst enemy,” he said. “They get mad and put their head down and start thinking about things too much. We tried to work on some technique early in the season and she was getting frustrated with it.
“She wanted it and she threw like a beast Wednesday.”
Burling qualifies for regionals twice
Thrower Jason Burling qualified for next week’s regional twice over.
He placed third in both the shot put (47-11.25) and the discus (138-11). While his season will continue for at least another week, Burling wish he had a couple throws back from Friday’s shot put competition.
Jason Burling throws the shot put in Friday’s district meet,
“I left a couple out there,” he said. “Two should have been over 50, I came up and dropped my elbow when it came off my hand.”
Bates believes Burling’s potential is high if he can tighten his mechanics.
“He didn’t throw the best but he threw whatever it took to make it out,” Bates said. “I really think he hasn’t come close to what he’s capable of in the discus yet.”
Other regional qualifiers:
Four other events saw Little and Lady Giants sneak into the regional meet with fourth-place finishes.
The girls 4×200 relay team of Janna Sutton, Ashanti Elkins, Kimora Rapp and Jazzele Lindsey placed fourth with a time of 1:49.50.
The boys 4×400 team of Oliver Ellis, Bryce McKinstry, Ka’Von Martin and Ivan Starkweather clocked a time of 3:27.62. Ellis also qualified on his own, placing fourth in the 400 dash in a time of 51.23.
And in the pole vault, Keaton Jordan cleared a height of 13 feet, 9 inches.
“What we wanted to happen, happened,” John Elder said. “With the only exception, maybe, was the (boys) 4×200, they got DQd, which happens sometimes. They ran out of their zone.
“Overall, it was what we hoped it would be.”
DISTRICT FINALS
GIRLS
Team Scores: 1. Lexington 111; 2. Madison Comprehensive 87; 3. Lima Senior 86; 4. Ashland 69.5; 5. Fremont Ross 65; 6. Tiffin Columbian 57.5; 7. Findlay 50; 8. Norwalk 40; 9. Lima Shawnee 36; 10. Bowling Green 24.5; 11. Wapakoneta 18.5; 12. Sandusky 14.
Regional qualifiers in bold
4×800 Relay: 6. Ashanti Elkins; McKela Elder; Hayley Wilson; Mara Brown; 10:20.98
100 Hurdles: 5. Janna Sutton, 16.86
100 Dash: 8. Taliyah Milton, 13.47
4×200 Relay: 4. Janna Sutton; Ashanti Elkins; Kimora Rapp; Jazzele Lindsey; 1:49.50
4×100 Relay: DQ; Janna Sutton; Ashanti Elkins; Taliyah Milton; Jazzele Lindsey.
400 Dash: 5. Kimora Rapp, 1:01.60
800 Run: 1. McKela Elder, 2:21.22
4×400 Relay: 6. Madalyn Metcalf; Kimora Rapp; Ashtyn Schneider; Ashanti Elkins; 4:13.15
Pole Vault: 1. AnneMarie Moses, 11-06.00
High Jump: 1. Olivia DeRodes, 5-03.00; 5. Sarah Watson, 4-10.00
Shot Put: 2. Emma Jahns, 34.05.50; 6. Olivia Baptista, 32-06.00
BOYS
Team Scores: 1. Ashland, 116; Lexington, 64; 3. Celina, 63; 4. Sandusky 56; 5. Norwalk, 48; 5. Fremont Ross, 48; 7. Tiffin Columbian, 44; 8. Defiance, 38; 8. Clyde 38; 10. Findlay 37; 11. Madison Comprehensive, 25; 12. Lima Shawnee, 24; 13. Bowling Green 21; 14. Mansfield Senior 16; 15. Wapakoneta 13; 16. Lima Senior 2.
Regional qualifiers in bold
4×800 Relay: 8. Isaias Ortiz; Evan Starkweather; Jayden Scott; Ethan McClory; 8:50.05
110 Hurdles: 7. Devyn Jagodzinski, 15.9
4×200 Relay: DQ; Devyn Jagodzinski; Bryce McKinstry; Ivan Starkweather; Oliver Ellis;
400 Dash: 4. Oliver Ellis, 51.23
800 Run: 1. Matt Kuyken, 1:57.38
4×400 Relay: 4. Oliver Ellis; Bryce McKinstry; Ka’Von Martin; Ivan Starkweather; 3:27.62
High Jump: 7(T). Bryce McKinstry, 5-06.00; 7(T). Hayden Lehmann, 5-06.00
Shot Put: 3. Jason Burling, 47-11.25; 6. Mike Thomas, 45-01.00
Long Jump: 6. Kamyron Jones, 20-06.00
Discus: 3. Jason Burling, 138-11
Pole Vault: 4. Keaton Jordan, 13-09.00