Ross track teams each place second in Little Giant invite

FREMONT – Ashanti Elkins did exactly as she was asked.

Running the anchor leg of the 4×400 relay, the final event of the day at the Little Giant Track and Field Invitational, girls head track coach Travis Bates told Elkins and her relay teammates, they needed to run in high gear. Trailing Springfield by three points in the overall standings, Bates told his team they needed to finish higher than the Blue Devils to win the team competition.

Madalyn Metcalf, Jazzele Lindsey and Ashtyn Schneider kept Ross in striking distance of Springfield in the relay. Finally, in the last 100 meters of her fourth leg, Elkins caught and passed Springfield’s Taiya Miller, beating her by 0.16 seconds across the finish line.

The only problem being, Ross trailed Springfield by three points and Elkins’ sprint to the finish made up just two points for the Lady Giants, as Springfield clung to the championship by a point, 113-112, out of the nine teams competing.

“I told them, ‘We have to beat Springfield, if we beat Springfield we can win the meet,’” Bates said. “Unfortunately, we needed to beat them by 2 spots.”

“To come out second by one point, I think that is pretty good,” Bates added. “The kids knew where we were and they went out and went after it. That was nice.”

The boys 4×400 relay also had some drama, though the meet championship didn’t hinge in the balance. After being passed late in the race by Bedford-Temperance’s Michael Greeley late in the final leg of the race, Ross’ Ka’Von Martin threw the baton after crossing the finish line in second place. The baton-throw, however, resulted in the Little Giants being disqualified.

Boys head track coach John Elder was less concerned with the disqualification and more pleased to see Martin’s competitiveness.

“Live and learn,” Elder said. “We’ve had a hard time, we need him to unleash the inner Ka’Von that can run fast and he started to do that today, which is good. This meet is good a for a number of reasons, people like Ka’Von are starting to round into what we think they should be doing.”

The boys team, like the girls, also finished second in its own meet, finishing with 91 points while Bedford-Temperance finished with 103.

The day, which provided gorgeous weather – a rare occurrence for the track teams this spring – saw a number of stellar performances by Ross’ athletes in their final tune-up before the championship season gets under way next weekend at the TRAC league meet in Findlay.

 

DeRodes leaves 5-2 in the past

Junior high jumper Olivia DeRodes is making up for lost time. Early in her sophomore year, DeRodes clear 5-feet, 2-iches in competition. Then it stopped happening. She would top out in meets ate 5-0 or 5-1, despite regularly making jumps of 5-3 or 5-4 in practice.

Earlier in the week, DeRodes finally broke through 5-2 – and set a new program record in the process with a jump of 5-5.5.

Saturday, DeRodes cleared 5-4, winning the high jump with no one else successfully clearing higher and 5-0.

For DeRodes, eclipsing 5-2 eliminated what had become a mental block.

“I hadn’t cleared 5-2 since the beginning of sophomore year, then I cleared 5-2 at Central Catholic and I was like, ‘Ok, here we go,’” DeRodes said. “Then I just decided to have fun, see what happens next and it ended up being really good.”

She said the breakthrough came with a retool of her mechanics when planting her foot upon take-off.

“At the beginning of the year, I was planting my foot out (pointing to the side), that caused me to go, instead of up, I was going into the bar,” she explained. “So, we’ve been working on that a lot, dropping my shoulder in so my foot stays in the right spot. There’s been a lot of technical changes.”

And now, with 5-2 in the past, DeRodes is looking forward to seeing that the future holds – including a return trip to the state meet.

“I was just freaking out (at the state meet last year) and Jesse Owens Stadium is amazing,” DeRodes said. “This year, hopefully, I’ll be able to keep my composure and make it on the podium at state

“When I get down there, hopefully, I’ll be able to relax more and just have fun with it,” she added. “It’s the state meet, you’re supposed to be relaxed and just see what can happen. And I still have another year, so we’ll see.”

 

Pole vaulters taking aim at records

One of Fremont Ross’ oldest track and field records is in danger.

Junior pole vaulter Keaton Jordan placed second in the event Saturday, setting a new personal-record in the process of 13-feet, 6-inches. But he doesn’t plan on stopping there. Jordan reached heights well over 14 feet, but couldn’t quite clear it without knocking down the cross-bar.

His near-misses, however, left no doubt the school’s 44-year-old record of 14-1 is well within reach.

“I felt like I had 14 in the bag today, had a couple close calls with it,” Jordan said.

“The record is 14-1, I’d love to get that, 14-2, 14-3 and after that it kind of takes off,” he added. “If I can get that 14 jump, that should put me close to qualifying for state. That’d be awesome.”

Ross pole vaulting coach Pryde Yost believes Jordan is on the verge of putting himself in the recordbooks.

“He’s a foot over 14,” Yost said. “He’s been really exploding on the poles lately.

“It would be nice if it fell today, it could have easily today but the crossbar just came down,” he added. “I think it’s coming. They know it’s coming. We all see it at practice. We have video after video after video of him getting that high, so we know it’s there. Hopefully it happens.”

If Jordan does make the record his own, he’ll be the second current pole vaulter to rewrite the recordbook.

Junior AnneMarie Moses, who broke her own record earlier this year, currently holds the Lady Giant mark at 12-2. She won Saturday’s meet with a height of 11-6, but that didn’t stop her from trying to one-up herself.

“The past couple of meets, she’s gone 12 or higher, even though it might not look like it on paper,” Yost said. “Today she won at 11-6, but you can’t see she was going for 12-3. The height has been real consistent, it’s not like she had one good meet where she got 12-2 and broke the record, it’s been consistent the past couple weeks after that. … The height is there, but we have to work on a few technical things to make the pole work the way we want it to work.”

Girls running highlights

McKela Elder continued her stellar spring, winning yet again in the 800, clocking a time of 2:26.91, 17 seconds faster than her closest competition. Elder also finished second in 1600, and joined Elkins, Madalyn Metcalf and Mara Brown in finishing second in the 4×800 relay.

Kimora Rapp placed second in the 400, and ran as part of the second-place 4×200 relay, along with Janna Sutton, Elkins and Jazzele Lindsey. Rapp’s ran battling a hip issue that held her out of the 4×400.

“If we put her in the 4×4, we probably win it, but it is what it is and if she’s hurting a little bit we don’t want to mess her up,” Bates said. “She had a great open (400) and she’s young and she’s tiny, she’s going to get stronger and better. Hopefully she’s going to be good as we get into championship week.”

Janna Sutton claimed third in the 100 hurdles and Jazzele Lindsey was fifth in the 100 dash.

“The girl sprints are making progress,” Bates said. “Jazzele, I think, looked really good. She’s trimmed down in the last couple weeks and she hasn’t had too much experience because of the weather and she was gone for cheerleading.

“They’re starting to come along a little bit. I think we can put together a pretty good 4×4 and a good 4×1 if everybody is healthy and running their fastest. I’m really pleased with how the sprints are coming along.”

 

Boys running highlights

Though he’s spent part of the season running in some different events, senior Matt Kuyken is refocusing himself on the 800. Saturday, he won his best event with a time of 1:58.31.

Kuyken said he believes he is rounding into form and finding his comfort zone in the race.

“It’s going really well so far, faster than I’ve ever been, a lot faster than I was here last year,” Kuyken said. “We’re shooting for about a 1:54, that should get to state. I know last week I ran a 1:57, that put me about eighth in the state. 1:54 should make it, definitely.”

Kuyken also ran the opening leg on the first-place 4×200 relay team. Bryce McKinstry, Ivan Starkweather and Oliver Ellis combined with Kuyken to clock a time of 1:32.90. Ellis, returning after nursing a hamstring injury for the last two weeks, also won the 200 dash in a time of 22.92.

“It was great to see Oliver back,” Elder said. “He gives us some flexibility and a lot of potential. He looked a lot better than I expected. He looked stronger than heck.”

In the hurdles, Devyn Jagodzinski took second in the 110 and placed sixth in the 300. Ethan McClory placed second in the 1600 and third in the 3200.

 

Little Giant Invitational

GIRLS

Team results: 1. Springfield 113; 2. Fremont Ross 112; 3. Tiffin Columbian 88.5; 4. Norwalk 63; 5. St. Joseph Central Catholic 58; 6. Toledo Start 48; 7. Old Fort 36; 8. Toledo Bowsher 35.5; 9. Toledo Scott 1.

4×800 Relay: 2. Ashanti Elkins; McKela Elder; Madalyn Metcalf; Mara Brown; 10:33.95

4×1600 Relay: 4. Lauren Zimmerman; Grace Egbert; Kayla Glotzbecker; Bryanna Schermerhorn; 26:52.31

100 Hurdles: 3. Janna Sutton, 17.10

100 Dash: 5. Jazzele Lindsey, 13.08

4×200 Relay: 2. Janna Sutton; Ashanti Elkins; Kimora Rapp; Jazzele Lindsey; 1:48.96

1600 Run: 2. McKela Elder, 5:39.50; 6. Mara Brown, 6:35.41

4×100 Relay: 3. Janna Sutton; Ashanti Elkins; Alexis Prenzlin; Jazzele Lindsey; 52.43

400 Dash: 2. Kimora Rapp, 1:02.24

300 Hurdles: No place

800 Run: 1. McKela Elder, 2:26.91; 3. Hayley Wilson, 2:43.96

200 Dash: No place

3200 Run: No place

4×400 Relay: 2. Madalyn Metcalf; Jazzele Lindsey; Kimora Rapp; Ashanti Elkins; 4:24.31

Long Jump: 5. Alexis Prenzlin, 14-01.25

High Jump: 1. Olivia DeRodes, 5-04.00; 4. Sarah Watson, 4-10.00

Shot Put: 3. Olivia Baptista, 32-06.00

Discus: 5. Marissa Overmyer, 100-09

Pole Vault: 1. AnneMarie Moses, 11-06.00; 4. Faith Zimmerman, 7-06.00

 

BOYS

Team results: 1. Bedford-Temperance 103; 2. Fremont Ross 91; 3. Tiffin Columbian 85; 4. Norwalk 76; 5. Springfield 73; 6. Toledo Bowsher 47; 7. Toledo Start 42; 8. Old Fort 15; 9. Toledo Scott 14; 10. St. Joseph Central Catholic 12.

4×800 Relay: 4. Evan Starkweather; Ethan McClory; Ka’Von Martin; Jayden Scott; 8:53.07

4×1600 Relay: 4. Zach Edmunds; Isaias Ortiz; Noah Egbert; Brayden Darr; 20:21.89

110 Hurdles: 2. Devyn Jagodzinski, 15.94

100 Dash: No place

4×200 Relay: 1. Matt Kuyken; Bryce McKinstry; Ivan Starkweather; Oliver Ellis; 1:32.90

1600 Run: 2. Ethan McClory, 4:41.32

4×100 Relay: 5. Maliek Johnson; Hayden Lehmann; Kamyron Jones; Devyn Jagodzinski; 45.87

400 Dash: 5. Ivan Starkweather, 53.33; 6. Ka’Von Martin, 53.54

300 Hurdles: 6. Devyn Jagodzinksi, 46.34

800 Run: 1. Matt Kuyken, 1:58.31; 6. Evan Starkweather, 2:11.25

200 Dash: 1. Oliver Ellis, 22.92

3200 Run: 3. Ethan McClory, 10:16.82

4×400 Relay: No place

Long Jump: 5. Nathan Willis, 19-02.00; 6. Kamyron Jones, 18-07.75

High Jump: 3. Bryce McKinstry, 5-10.00; 6. Hayden Lehmann, 5-08.00

Shot Put: 4. Dontrez Brown, 42-05.00

Discus: 5. Mike Thomas, 123-09

Pole Vault: 2. Keaton Jordan, 13-06.00