"Anything can happen." 

That very "thing" that happened on Saturday was something that not even Marlington senior and Ohio State University commit, Colin Cernansky, was expecting. The Dukes of Marlington took home the team title at the OATCCC D2/3 & Seated Indoor State Meet, which was sealed after a stellar showing in the 4x400m Relay with, winning their section and eventually, third overall in the event for the six points that they needed to shoot to the top of the team scores.

Prior to this, they were racking up points throughout the day in the relays, jumps, and distance events. Starting with the 4x800m Relay, Marlington were actually not the favorites to win, as they were a part of a handful of teams that were trailing a few seconds right behind the top seed, Shelby. This certainly didn't change things for the returning champions however, as they kept the momentum going by staying at the front with Shelby and Carroll, up until Logan Citino (Marlington 2024) winded things down in the last 300 meters, leading up until the handoff to Cernansky who eventually sealed the deal to start the day.

In the individual events, starting first with Cernansky in the 1600m, while he was unable to defend his title this time around, as Riley Nixon (Ottawa Hills 2024) stormed his way to his first state title in the final lap of the race, he certainly showed all of SPIRE what he was good at, and that was front-running, keeping composure, and closing hard coming into the bell.

For Michael Nicholls (Marlington 2024), he played it smart in the 3200m later in the day, starting in the latter half and then slowly working his way up to settle with the Top-5 just right after the mile mark. In the closing minutes, Nicholls put himself into title contention against the OHSAA Division 2 Cross Country Champion and eventual winner, Andrew Walton (Fairfield Union 2025). Regardless of this, he didn't just score points to add to the tally, but also set a personal best in the event that is also faster than his outdoor personal best.

While the distance guys were showing out on the track, the Dukes also had Caleb Beggs (Marlington 2025), who contributed to the team score with a huge personal best in the triple jump, which resulted in a 3rd place finish overall off of his first attempt. His mark of 42-0.25 very early into the competition was a new personal best by almost a foot based on this indoor season but was an incredible improvement of almost 5 feet when compared to with his outdoor personal best from last spring of 37-6.5.