Odd finish sees Knights take second at Div. II district meet
Gavin Freeman roars out encouragement as Sawyer Pritt takes the baton in the 4-by-100 relay. The two joined teammates Emmett Myers and Brady Taylor in advancing to regionals, finishing second, a mere 0.01 second out of first.
West Holmes 4-by-400 relay runner Sawyer Pritt’s baton made a majestic arc high into the blue afternoon sky at West Holmes High School, where the Div. II district championship was on the line. It was almost as if it was in slow motion.
In one odds-defying moment, West Holmes watched their chance of winning a district title fly away as River View went on to post what was a highly entertaining district meet.
Pritt was running the third leg of the day’s final event that would determine the team victor when his baton came in contact with the River View runner in front of him. The baton went flying, and a stunned Pritt had to wait for it to come down, regain his composure and, after a couple of tries, pick it up and continue. While senior speedster Brady Taylor ran valiantly, he was able to close in on only two teams, the Knights finishing fifth in the race, the title vanishing.
“It was incidental contact, and there is nothing we can do about it,” Knights head coach Ty Harris said. “It’s a tough way to lose a district title and for that group not to advance to regionals, but it shouldn’t take away from a great weekend. Our kids really battled. We set some PRs, and we are advancing a lot of kids on to regionals.”
River View ended that 4-by-400 race in third, collecting six points, which pushed it to 103 points for the day, while WHHS placed fifth, good for four points and a total of 100. Lisbon Beaver was a distant third with 74. Indian Valley took fourth with 72, and Garaway placed fifth with 53.
Despite the agony of that final event, the Knights had a lot to celebrate. In the 4-by-200 relay, the team of Gavin Freeman, Austin Myers, Emmett Myers and Taylor placed second in 1:30.87, where they were nipped by winner Lisbon Beaver’s run of 1:30.44.
Those two teams went one-two in the 4-by-100 relay, where Lisbon Beaver ran a 43.65, defeating runner-up West Holmes by 0.01 seconds. Freeman, Pritt, Emmett Myers and Taylor ran very well there.
Garaway’s quartet of Quinten Schwartz, Parker Graf, Nathan Money and Bobby Palmer secured a spot at regionals in the 4-by-800 relay by turning in a fourth-place effort in 8:47.63. The Knights were on the outside looking in, with the team of Cade Wagers, Haeden Wolfe, Caden Zeigler and Braydyn Lemon finishing fifth in 9:02.92.
In the 1600-meters, Garaway’s Bobby Palmer just missed a regional qualifying run, placing fifth in 4:49.41, while Nathan Money ran ninth in 5:16.23. West Holmes got a seventh-place finish from Haeden Wolfe in 5:03.48 while Caden Zeigler placed 12th in 5:19.66.
Garaway got its lone win on the day from 400-meter star Brendan Chapman, who ran away from the field in 51.75, easily beating runner-up Dylan Moore of Lisbon Beaver’s time of 52.6. West Holmes’ Zander Schultz just missed qualifying for regionals with a fifth-place finish in 54.05.
In the 300-meter hurdles, Garaway’s Ty Winters earned sixth in 42.76 while Knights’ Austin Myers ran seventh in 43.21.
Taylor also qualified for regionals in the 200, where he trailed only Lisbon Beaver star Caleb White. White ran a 22.42 while Taylor burned his way to a 22.69, those two standing out well over the rest of the field. Freeman would go on to place seventh in 24.01.
The 3200-meters proved to be a very exciting race, with Garaway’s Quinten Schwartz and Parker Graf and River View’s Javin Robinson and Connor Stevens-Woolery joining West Holmes’ Zeke Galbraith in a quintet that broke away from the pack early and waged a great race. Eventually Graf fell behind, settling into fifth in 10:43.61. That left the other four qualifying for regionals, but the challenge would come late in a thrilling finish.
Log-jammed in a tight pack with 200 meters to go, Galbraith held the slimmest of leads, but with just more than 100 meters to go, Robinson put on an incredible kick, mowing past the three and zooming to victory in 10:25.23. Stevens earned second in 10:26.44 while Galbraith settled in at third in 10:27.69, leaving Schwartz in fourth in 10:29.04.
West Holmes did a load of damage in the field events, where they racked up some major points on the broad shoulders of senior Lane Graham. Graham broke his own school record in the shot, where his heave of 60-10.5 easily got past runner-up J.J. Durr’s runner-up effort of 54-05.5. Garaway sent two throwers on to regionals in Mason Steiner and Braden Adams, who threw 43-06.25 and 43-04.75, respectively.
Durr turned the tables on Graham in the discus, firing off a throw of 161-05 to win it, with Graham taking second with a toss of 149-08. Steiner locked in third to advance to regionals with a throw of 143-05.
In the long jump, Freeman covered 20-06.75, good for second place behind champion Mason Tucci of Sandy Valley, who leaped 20-10. Pritt ended up eighth with a jump of 18-09. In the high jump, Knights’ Schultz took second by clearing 5-10, where he won on fewer misses, but the day belonged to East Liverpool’s Cameron Beverley, who cleared 6-07 and nearly broke the stadium and event record trying to clear 6-09.
The Knights continued excelling in the pole vault, where Emmett Myers’ effort of 14-06 earned him runner-up behind champion David Adams of Indian Valley, who cleared 15-0. Third went to Knights’ Zach Snow, who cleared 12-06.
Garaway head coach Zach Mottice was pleased with the overall effort, especially considering how young his group is.
“We wanted our kids to come here and compete, and that is what we saw from them,” Mottice said. “We wanted to be performing our best at the end of the year, and we are, and we got some great results from some very young kids who are only going to get better.”