Cedarville Early Bird Recap

Fast sprints and impressive field event marks are what people are going to remember from this meet.  Starting with the field events, Jack Greenlee of St. Xavier went 15'1 in the vault, the 13th best vault in the nation right now.   (See the Video

For the girls, Harrison's Annie Robben cleared 10'9 to take an early advantage on the rest of the field in Ohio.  As of the Cedarville meet, three other girls had cleared 10', but none were able to go any higher.

The shot was run poorly, but had some impressive marks for this early in the season. Curt Smith of Chillicothe and Justin Welch of Eastwood battled for top honors with Welch coming out on top with a throw of 58'7" to Smith's 57'1".

On the girls side, senior Alexis Thomas of Wayne was a double winner, taking gold in the shot and the weight. Her weight throw of 43'8.5" was a 5' PR and leads the state right now.

The guys weight throw was the best that there has been in Ohio, with all 8 placers going over 50' feet. First place went to Welch with a 70'6" throw, second place to Kidder of Kings with a toss of 60'6.5" and third to Bennett of Centerville with a 1 turn heave of 58'9.5".

Keith Hurst of Mechanicsburg jumped an impressive 6'7" in the high jump, currently the 9th best jump in the US.    In the girls high jump, Skyler Willis of Cincinnati Withrow tied the best jump in Ohio this year by clearing 5'2".

The most impressive running performance came from Elaina Cromer of Miami Valley School, who was the first girl in Ohio to break the minute barrier in 2009 in the 400m by finishing in 59.65 seconds for a new meet record.

The guys sprints had many great races.  The finals of the 55m provided some speed and excitement with three student atheltes going sub 6.55.  Trotwood's Tony Ruby went 6.54, Wayne's Demoye Bogle, ran a 6.50 and Northmont's Mark Mays bested the field by blazing a 6.47.  In the 200m, Bogle again finished runner up, but this time to Trotwood's William Henry.  Henry ran a time of 22.55 to Bogle's 22.78.  Henry was a double winner this weekend, also taking home the gold in the 400m with a time of 50.39 seconds.

The girls distance races featured strong fields, in the 1600m, 17 of the top 25 marks in ohio this year came from this meet.  Katie Landwehr of Tippecanoe was able to hold off Glen Este's Michelle Thomas for the win with a time of 5:30.13 to 5:32.60.  In the 3200m, 9 of the top 10 Ohio marks were set at this meet.  Madeira's Lauren Dehan became the first girl in Ohio to break the 12 minute mark in 2009 by winning the 3200m in a time of 11:58.84.

The Centerville girls relay team set the pace in the 4x800m and nobody could keep up with them.  Centerville cruised to an easy victory in a state leading time of 10:39.47, over fifteen seconds faster than any other team in the state.  On the guys side, five teams were able to go sub 8:50, with Unioto edging out Tippecaonoe, 8:46.27 to 8:46.98.  Dunbar, Wayne and Centerville all finished in under 8:50, too. 

The boys teams of Dunbar and Trotwood-Madinson continued to battle for supremacy in the 4x400m relay.  Trotwood won this round by going 3:30.68 to Dunbar's 3:31.06.  These two teams are cruising already, as the next best time in the state is about ten seconds behind.

Reggie Mitchell of Elder provided some excitement in the 55m Hurdles, by being the first Ohian of the season to dip below 7.8 seconds.  Mitchell finished in a time of 7.69 seconds in the finals.