Mary Cain set the national indoor two mile record in 2013. It stood for 13 years, Katy Zang ran 9:37.15 at New. Balance Nationals Indoor in Boston on Mar 12 and took it down.
The build to that moment happened fast. Heading into the OATCCC D1 Indoor State Meet on Mar 6, Zang's personal best in the 3200m was 10:17.56, set at the SPIRE Ohio Preview Meet in January. She had only raced once all indoor season.
Then at state she went out in around 2:20 through 800m, hit 1600m in 4:45, and finished in 9:42.84 - the first Ohio high school girl to ever break 10 minutes in the indoor 3200m, shattering the previous state record of 10:07 by 25 seconds. She finished more than 40 seconds ahead of the runner-up.
One week later she was in Boston. New Balance set the pacemaker lights to Cain's 9:38.68. Zang ran on the outside shoulder of her pacemaker from the gun, split 4:41 at the mile, and crossed in 9:37.15. A Meet and National record. She was then invited to run the mile the next day, an event she hadn't registered for. She won that too, also in a meet record: 4:35.02.
Those performances did not come out of nowhere, even if it looked that way nationally. Zang suffered a stress fracture to her left tibia during the 2024 D1 regional cross country meet and missed the postseason. She came back last spring and finished 5th at OHSAA D1 State in the 3200m at 10:37.59. In the fall she won the New Balance RunningLane XC Championships at 17:04.28, placed 13th at NXR Midwest, and finished 30th at OHSAA D1 State Cross Country.
But Zang was not the only Teays Valley athlete in Geneva. Kennedy Tietz and Cami Myers both qualified for the OATCCC D1 Indoor State Meet in the weight throw, competing together on the same day Zang broke the state record. Tietz finished 4th at 45-9.50. She is a junior who also has a 36-7.25 PR in the shot put and threw 121-2 in the discus at the Ohio Capital Conference meet last spring.
In the sprints, Abby Henderson is a senior who ran 7.96 in the 55m at the Central District Indoor Championship on Feb 15, a personal record and 43rd in Ohio. She also PR of 1:05.25 in the 400m (from this indoor season), 13.18 in the 100m, and 28.10 in the 200m, both from outdoors last spring.
Here are just a few more athletes who help make this a team to watch.
De'Vaughn Railey (2027) ran 6.97 in the 55m, ranking 60th in the state. Reese Galinger (2027) has run 2:22.66 in the 800m and 5:27.88 in the 1600m. Dylan Stiffler (2028) has a 7.14 PR in the 55m. Eva Gaal (2027) has cleared 8-0 in the pole vault, while Rylan Shaver (2026) owns a mark 9-6 in the pole vault from the season. Lila Merritt (2027) has cleared 4-4 in the high jump and Trevor Roeder (2028) has a 5-2 in the same event. Maria Knupp (2027) has gone 13-5.50 in the long jump.
Outdoor season is just getting started in Ohio. Zang already has the national record from indoors. The question now becomes what she does with a full spring in front of her, and how the rest of the team follows.
