Vermilion's Painter going D-I after jumping records at Marietta

When Addison Painter decided to join the track team on a whim as a Vermilion High School junior, he could've never pictured where the sport would take him. Six years after that junior spring, Painter is a Marietta College record holder and has committed to transfer to NCAA Division I Marshall University in the fall. And he hopes to end up as a track coach after college, too. "Track was really something I did for fun with my friends junior year," Painter said. "We needed something to do in the spring. That was what it was. Never in my life would I have imagined me still doing track now, especially trying to make a coaching career out of it." Painter, a 2019 Sailors graduate, is Marietta's best-ever long jumper, heptathlete and decathlete. He's also tied for the school's triple jump record. He recently locked in the opportunity to use his final year of eligibility at Marshall, where he plans to get his master's degree in sports administration. "To have that opportunity to go forward and get a little bit bigger experience, the lights are a little brighter, it's impossible to say no to," Painter said. "It's an awesome opportunity. The excitement level is certainly high. The biggest thing is I'm thankful for it." Painter was a do-everything football player for the Sailors – even long-snapping. He also played baseball growing up, but by his junior year had decided that sport wasn't for him. He stayed in shape on the track, trying out a number of events as a junior before settling on the hurdles races and relays as a senior. Ironically, Painter never did the jumps in high school. "I found a lot more success in track than football," he said. "I also found track really late, junior year. I was a baseball kid before that. I didn't really get to taste that success or potential until senior year. I just kind of stopped having that joy in baseball and still wanted to do something that was competitive in the spring, and I had a bunch of friends who ran track." Painter started college at Akron in the fall of 2019. He tried to walk on to the track team but didn't make it. At the time, Painter thought about dropping out of college. But a friend from Vermilion, Elijah Balek, was at Marietta and suggested Painter give the Division III experience a chance. Coupled with the COVID pandemic, it was an odd time to change schools for Painter, but he landed on his feet. "There was no visit," he said. "I came here on a whim, and it worked out." Painter spent two years as a wide receiver and special teams player for the football team, but it's in the long jump where he really unlocked his potential. The 6-foot speedster always felt he could be good at the event. Once at Marietta, he asked the coaches to try it, and it clicked. "Hurdles is what I always did, and it was a finesse event," Painter said. "You've got to be coordinated and flexible. Long jump was the more explosive version of that. I could take that same skillset and take that into long jump. In my mind, long jump is the most fun event to watch." Once Painter worked through what he called the "not pretty" phases of learning a new skill, he took off. Last spring, he set the school record for the first time, and he has kept leaping further. At the Ohio Athletic Conference indoor meet in February, he flew 7.25 meters (23 feet, 9.5 inches) to win the conference title and set his current personal best. He went on to earn All-American honors with a seventh-place finish at indoor nationals. "Halfway through the indoor season of my junior year (2022-23), we started to put together my form in the air and figured out how to get that takeoff vertically off the runway," Painter said. "That's been super huge." Painter performed well in the multi-event competitions last season, too, but he and his coaches decided to focus on the long jump this year. He hopes to grab the outdoor conference crown and make a run at the podium at the D-III NCAA meet, too. "Conference championships just leave it all out there," Painter said. "Make it into the national championship meet, give it all I got and hopefully finish an All-American and see how high I can go." Painter will join a familiar face in the fall at Marshall in assistant coach Andrea Deem, who was at Marietta through the end of 2022. With the Thundering Herd, Painter will help grow a men's program that has been on the rise since its return in 2022-23 after it had been dormant since 2003. "It's really cool," Painter said. "It's really a full-circle moment. What kid in high school doesn't want to go D-I? That was always the dream and the goal."