After taking the lead on the meet’s first day, the Firelands girls and Keystone boys expanded on them to win the conference title convincingly at the LC8 track and field championships on May 11 at Firelands.
The Falcons have battled with Brookside a lot this season, but they came away with a whopping 42-point victory, 167 to 125. This is Firelands’ first girls track and field title unofficially since 1999. Brookside got five combined victories from Madison Palmer and Zuriah Radeff-Koonce. But Firelands’ depth made the difference. Wellington (82), Oberlin (69) and Keystone (64) rounded out the top five.
“I thought we had ourselves a good day on Tuesday, but I told them that today we had to step it up even more,” Firelands coach Steve Lias said. “The last couple of years, we’ve been second to Brookside, and we’ve all wanted it. This group was hungry, no doubt about it.”
Despite Ryne Shackelford not being at 100%, Keystone cruised to a 42.5-point win. The Wildcats were only up by 2.5 points over Firelands after the first day, but pulled away. Keystone finished with 164 points, and Firelands finished as runner-up with 122.5. Brookside came in third with 105 points, followed by Black River (93.5) and Wellington (75).
“This team all year, we’re talented, but our biggest goal is to try and get through a meet with everybody clicking on all cylinders, and we’ve had a hard time doing it,” Keystone coach Jeff Holzhauer said. “We were able to have enough good performances to win another conference championship, but we need to continue to get tougher, work harder and get better as a program. That’s what our goal always is.”
Firelands’ girls only had one individual winner in Ariannah Floyd, but they swept the relays on the final day. Naveah Floyd, Zadie Grude, Caley Bomback and Hailey Urban won the 4×100 and broke the meet record with a time of 52.07 seconds.
PHOTOS: Great Lakes Conference track and field, Day 2, May 11, 2023
Bomback teamed up with Jordyn Copley, Bella Simmons and Audrey Smith to win the 4x200 in a thrilling comeback victory over Oberlin. The Falcons won with a meet record time of 1:48.38, defeating Oberlin's 1:48.40. In the final event of the day, Firelands put an exclamation mark on their victory with a 4x400 win led by Copley, Simmons, Smith and Hazel Littleton with another meet record time of 4:15.05.
Floyd fell in the 110 hurdles to Black River's Olivia Todd, but she rebounded to win the 300 hurdles at 45.82 seconds.
Three other girls, Brookside's Palmer and Radeff-Koonce and Oberlin's Olivia Hudson, won two or more events. Palmer swept all of the distance events with wins in the 800, 1600 and 3,200. In total, Palmer ran three and a half miles on the final day, which is more than a cross country meet. She's certainly used to running far distances, but it was a challenge.
As a further distance runner, Palmer was nervous about the 800. She said that she ran in fear, and it ultimately worked out. The senior ended her final conference meet with a school record in the event that she was most worried about.
"I'm proud of myself for that (the school record). So I guess just running with fear is the main takeaway," Palmer said with a laugh. "I was more concerned about the 800 because I am a distance runner, so I knew that I had a better chance of doing well in the 1,600 and 3,200," Palmer said. "I ended up pushing really hard basically out of fear that someone would pass me."
Radeff-Koonce took care of business with wins in the 100 dash (12.66 seconds) and shot put (meet record 37-0.5), and also notched a runner-up finish in the 200. Hudson edged out Radeff-Koonce for the 200 title, and Hudson added the 400 title earlier in the meet.
Keystone's girls finished in fifth, but the Wildcats had two field event wins. Andrea Whitman won pole vault with a leap of 8-6, and Jessica Linden outlasted teammate Aubrey Cindia for the high jump win with a meet record 5-2. Linden got second last year to Cindia, and wanted to get the win this time around.
"I was pretty determined to get first because I got second last year to Aubrey," Linden said. "My previous PR was 5-0 at a home meet, so I'm really proud of this."
It was unknown if Shackelford was going to compete in the final day for the Keystone boys. But he did, and he got 18 points out of it. In his final LC8 meet, he won the long jump at 22-6 1/2. He also ran in the 100 dash, but tapered off toward the end to finish in second to Oberlin's Evan Hudson. Having to deal with the nagging injury, Shackelford is pleased with his performance as much as can be with the hamstring. For the next week, he will try his best to rehab it before the district meet.
"With a pulled hamstring, I thought I did pretty well," Shackelford said. "I'm happy with 5-10, I'm happy with 22-6 knowing that I'm injured. I didn't think that I was going to run that fast or even run it all (in the 100). I'm happy that I got second, but I was hoping for first."
Like the Firelands girls, Keystone's boys had a strong relay day. The Wildcats' 4x200 team of Grady Whitacre, Logan Nagle, Zach Shackelford and Alex Nagle won the title at 1:32.38. Both Nagles and Shackelford also competed in the 4x400 alongside Jacob Linden, winning the meet's final event with a meet record time of 3:29.03. AJ Stroud also added an 800 victory with a time of 2:00.65.
Not only did Evan Hudson beat Ryne Shackelford in the 100, but he also won the 200 and 400 as a triple winner. Hudson's time of 11.04 seconds edged out Shackelford's 11.11 in the 100. The other two victories were big, as he won the 200 at 22.17, and the 400 at a meet record 49.38.
In long jump, Hudson also finished second to Shackelford, and leaped a season-best 21-2. Heading into the district meet next week, he's feeling good about his overall performance.
"I came here ready," Hudson said. "I knew it was going to be good weather, I like this track and with Ryne hurt, I had to capitalize on it. He still ran well, but I just wanted it. I almost PR'd in the 400, but it was a good day nonetheless. I just want to carry it on to championship season and keep going up."
Firelands' James Berry also had a big day, sweeping the hurdles. He won the 110 hurdles with a time of 15.50 seconds, and the 300 hurdles at 42.65 seconds. Other area winners include Columbia's Anthony Fatica (discus) and Wellington's Joe Fox (1600).
