COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Not a bad year for the Magnificat girls. After winning the state cross country title last fall, and the coaches' state indoor meet in March, the Blue Streaks capped the school year with a runner-up finish in the Division I state track and field meet Saturday in Jesse Owens Stadium.
Magnificat's Mary Whitmore hands the baton to 4x800 relay anchor Madeline Chambers during the Division I state finals Friday at Columbus. Chambers was able to get the lead for a while in the last lap but was overcome by North Canton Hoovers' Allison Peare. Saturday, Magnificat completed a second-place finish in the team competition.
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(John Kuntz / The Plain Dealer)
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Not a bad year for the Magnificat girls.
After winning the state cross country title last fall, and the coaches' state indoor meet in March, the Blue Streaks capped the school year with a runner-up finish in the Division I state track and field meet Saturday in Jesse Owens Stadium.
Reynoldsburg dominated the girls meet with 56 points and won its second consecutive title. Led by 1,600-meter champion Madeline Chambers, Magnificat had 35 points. Chambers, a Georgetown recruit, also was fifth in the 800 and ran on Friday's runner-up 4x800 relay.
Blue Streaks sophomore Rachel Hlatky was third in the 200 and eighth in the 100. Twins Clare and Abby Fisher placed fifth and seventh in the 3,200.
"Maddie did a great job doubling in the 1,600 and the 800. Rachel doubling in the 100 and the 200 wasn't a surprise, but we were happy she did it," Magnificat coach Anjanette Arabian Whitman said. "To top this all off with a second-place finish in the outdoor meet is great. The girls feel so accomplished; it's wonderful."
Midpark and Medina tied for third with 31 points.
Midpark junior Kaila Barber had a hand in all the Meteors' points. She came back from a bad fall in Friday's prelims and won the 300 hurdles and the long jump. She also was third in the 100 and ran anchor on the Meteors' fifth-place 4x400.
Barber fell in Friday's 300 prelims, but she had such a big lead she was able to get up, finish fourth, and grab the last qualifying spot for the finals. She ran the finals in lane 8 and led the entire race despite hitting the first hurdle.
She said she lay awake Friday night trying not to think about falling in the hurdles. "I tried not to think about it, because if I think about it more, I'd just psych myself out," she said.
In the long jump, she won on her last jump, flying 19-81/4 over the sand. Until then, she was fourth at 17-10.
"It was win or go home, do or die," she said.
Barber said thoughts of her twin, Jade, were not far off. Jade injured her hamstring at the district and did not advance.
"She gave me a hug after I won the long jump, Kaila Barber said.
Medina was led by high jump winner Taylor Burke, who broke her own stadium record with a career-best 5-11, and runners-up Alex Wasik in the pole vault and Anna Boyert in the 1,600.
Burke had just one miss before clinching the title at 5-11, then trying to clear 6-0. She was the goalie on Medina's state championship soccer team last fall, and is the starting point guard on the basketball teams. She has made an oral commitment to play soccer and high jump at Florida.
"Winning soccer meant a lot to me because it was a big group of girls and here I'm kinda by myself," she said. "This also feels awesome."
Buchtel senior Kachay Hullum, who will run for Ohio State next year, was the 400 champion and came from behind on the anchor leg of the 4x200 to win. She also was sixth in the 200, accounting for all of the seventh-place Griffins' 23 points.
"This means a lot to win my senior year here, to win a state championship on my home track," she said.
Highland sophomore Natalie Zidd won a wild 800. She and defending champion Taneisha Cordell of New Albany were matching strides when Cordell fell on the apex of the final turn, tumbling into the infield. She did not finish, and Zidd did not know that until being told long after the race.
"I heard something hit the [inside rail], but I didn't see it," she said.
Zidd lost the lead in the final 20 meters to Hoover's Allison Peare, but Zidd passed her inside, as they traded elbows in the last five meters.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: twarsinskey@plaind.com, 216-999-4661