STATE TRACK: Huron boys 4x400, Margaretta girls 4x100 top seeds

All season long, Huron's 4x400 boys relay and Margaretta's 4x100 girls relay teams have been fast. With the state meet starting Friday, there's not much left to work on. "The only thing we're really working on this week is making sure our handoffs are as smooth as possible," Margaretta coach Todd Pooch said. "We're not really gonna change anything in particular." The Tigers and Polar Bears head to their respective state championships as the top seeds in those relays. Huron's state meet takes place at Pickerington North High School while Margaretta competes at Westerville North High School, both in the Columbus area, with semifinals Friday before finals on Saturday. The Huron foursome begins with Richie Delaney, who hands off to Zach Weyer followed by Conner Schaeffer and Jacob Eck as the anchor. Margaretta's relay begins with Jana Berg, Macyn Phillips and Olivia Saylor before Kenna Stimmel runs the final straightaway. Of the eight participants in these two relays, only Stimmel is competing in any individual events at the state meet. Both Pooch and Huron boys coach Mike Lemponen consider that a benefit. "It's kind of a blessing in disguise because we've got everybody fresh for the relays," Lemponen said. Huron's sending a program-record number of athletes to the state meet, Lemponen said, 11 in total. The Tigers' 4x400 and 4x200 boys relay teams both will compete at state, and each will be led off by the senior Delaney. Lemponen trusts his experience in that role, including a lead-off run at the state meet in 2019. "He's the guy that we trust in the blocks," Lemponen said. "He's got the most experience, and we're relying on his experience to help pull the other guys with him." Each group has a bit of tradition to partake in before the state meet. Before Margaretta took the trip south Thursday afternoon, each of the girls dyed a portion of their hair. The planned color this year is purple. Huron's main ritual took place once the team was at its hotel Thursday night. The coaches and athletes took a reflective walk around the hotel parking lot, and they Facetime called former and long-time Tigers track coach Bill Scott for a pep talk. "That's one thing we like to do tradition-wise is just to have the kids reflect on what they've accomplished so far and try to encourage them to finish the job," Lemponen said. There could also be pressure that comes with being top-seeded relays, and Huron and Margaretta are approaching that a bit differently. The Tigers want to handle this weekend's competition like any other, as difficult as that may be. "The message is just go in there and run it like it's another track meet," Lemponen said. "Obviously, we know it's the state meet. The stakes are as high as they can get. We want them to go in there and continue doing what they've been doing, because what they've been doing has been working." Margaretta's group isn't shy about wanting to win, though. Just qualifying for state isn't the accomplishment the Polar Bears have been chasing, Pooch said. "That's kind of our focus this week," Pooch said. "It's not just getting down there to be happy. Our goal is to be on top of the podium." Stimmel set to soar At most track meets, Margaretta junior Kenna Stimmel has to have her mind in multiple places at once. The pole vault normally gets underway before the running events, but rarely is it concluded before she has to step away to run the 100 hurdles, the 100-meter dash and the 4x100 relay. At the state meet, though, Stimmel's focus can narrow. The girls pole vault competition takes place Saturday morning and will conclude before the sprint finals get underway in the afternoon. "She can just keep all of her attention right at pole vault," Pooch said. "She's not thinking or listening to when the calls are, she has to check out, now she has to come back. She can stay right down at pole vault and really kind of concentrate. When that's over, she can just concentrate on her running." Stimmel enters the state meet as the favorite in the pole vault. She's the state record holder, having jumped 14 feet, 1 inch earlier this season and hit the 14-0 mark at three other meets. At last week's regional, Stimmel topped out at 12-0, focused only on reaching a state-qualifying height in poor weather conditions that had Stimmel using a shorter run-up than usual. That problem shouldn't exist at Westerville North. "It's gonna be warm now," Pooch said. "We're going from wearing snowsuits to tank tops." Stimmel will run in the semifinal events for the 100 hurdles, 100-meter dash and 4x100 relay Friday afternoon. If she qualifies for the finals, those will begin Saturday afternoon after a break following her pole vault morning. A 100 hurdles seed time of 15.62 seconds ranks Stimmel 12th among the competitors at the state meet. Eight runners advance to Saturday's final. She ran faster than that at the district meet, a 15.36. In the 100, Stimmel's 13.00 seed time ranks 13th among the competitors. Both those times came from the cold, wet regional round, though, and Stimmel has run a 12.25-second 100-meter dash this season, which would rank as the fastest seed time at the state meet. "She's a tireless worker," Pooch said. "She's gonna do her entire sprint workout first (in practice), then she goes over and does her vault." Stimmel's state competition will likely conclude with Margaretta's top-seeded 4x100 relay team. If the Polar Bears qualify for the final, they're scheduled to run at 3:45 p.m. Saturday with a state title on the line. Stimmel anchors that group, meaning she'll receive the final handoff along the curve before flying down the straightaway at Westerville North. Unlike most meets Stimmel competed in this season, those will be the final steps she has to worry about taking this weekend, aside from a potential walk or two to the podium. Cozzie's state quartet Izzy Cozzie's task at the state meet won't be easy. At least in Friday night's semifinals, she'll run four different sprints, including three in about 45 minutes. "We talked to her about it," Lemponen said. "Her words were, 'I'm running all four.' There was no way she was gonna not do that. The toughest pairing for Cozzie shapes up to be the 100-meter dash followed relatively shortly by the 4x200-meter relay. Her gap between those sprints will be approximately 15 minutes. Lemponen said there's nothing Huron can necessarily do to help from a physical standpoint besides making sure all the electrolytes and water Cozzie could want are available to her. Beyond that, it's mental. "It's really the mental part, the mental aspect of like, I know I don't have a lot of time, but there's nothing you can do about it so don't think, just run," Lemponen said. After those first two runs, Cozzie returns to the track about half an hour later as part of Huron's 4x100 relay. Her last gap of the day is her longest, getting more than an hour to recover before finishing off the semifinals in the 200-meter dash. Saturday's finals feature even less time between events because there aren't multiple heats in each, so the task could increase in difficulty exponentially for Cozzie if she pushes through the mental struggle to make the state finals. But that wouldn't be a bad problem to have — the faster Cozzie is Friday, the more chances at the podium Saturday. "She got herself a new pair of spikes," Lemponen said, "so she's gonna run fast Friday." Schlessman, Patrick trend upward to state Both Huron's Kennedy Schlessman and Margaretta's JT Patrick put forth their best performance of the season in last week's regional despite less-than-ideal conditions. Schlessman heads to state in the 800-meter run, and it'll be only the third time she runs that event as an individual. She spent much of the year running the two mile and the one mile along with the 4x800 relay. Huron's staff recognized Schlessman's relay time could be competitive in open competition. The 2:18.89 800 that Schlessman ran at regional broke a 31-year old Huron school record. "Now her next goal is to try to score at state," Lemponen said. "She's got a chance. That's the nice thing about everybody going down, everybody has a pretty legit shot of making podium." Patrick, a Polar Bears sophomore, set his shot put personal best at the regional meet with a winning throw of 50 feet, 3.75 inches. He's dealt with injuries this season, Pooch said, and is now peaking at the right time. "We know the ceiling for him, and we haven't come close to seeing it yet," Pooch said. "We're expecting big things from him, and we're just gonna go down there and hopefully he can throw another PR, and the goal we're telling him is let's podium. Let's go down there, let's get in the finals and let's get on that podium, be all-Ohio." Sandusky's Sturdivant in 400 mix Sandusky junior Amiyah Sturdivant enters the Division I state championships with the third-fastest seed time in the 400-meter dash (57.52). For Sturdivant to contend for first place, she'll have to increase her personal best by about two seconds. Two senior runners from Mentor, Emma Potter and Paige Floriea, have run times faster than 56 seconds. For much of the season, Sturdivant's defeated runners in her races by three or more seconds. This will likely be her chance to chase runners faster than her. Sandusky High School is also represented at state by long jumper Jaylin Dorsey. --- Huron state qualifiers BOYS Ben Buatheir (4x200) Richie Delaney (4x200, 4x400) Jacob Eck (4x400) Connor Schaeffer (4x200, 4x400) Zach Weyer (4x200, 4x400) GIRLS Jaden Carey (4x100, long jump) Izzy Cozzie (100, 200, 4x100, 4x200) Maggie Golling (4x100, 4x200) CaAujanay Grant (4x100, 4x200) Hayden Roshong (4x200) Kennedy Schlessman (800) Margaretta state qualifiers BOYS JT Patrick (shot put) GIRLS Jana Berg (4x100) Macyn Phillips (4x100) Olivia Saylor (4x100) Kenna Stimmel (100 hurdles, 100, pole vault, 4x100)