Ayers leads Lake sprinters

By: 
J. Patrick Eaken

Although he is trying to build a balanced team, Lake track coach Jason Schober says his sprinters are his team’s strength.

Lake got a league championship from junior Ava Ayers, who won the 400-meter dash in 1:01.36, nipping Woodmore sophomore Rahzia Rios (1:02.42). Schober says Ayers and classmate Olivia Hayward have set a new standard at Lake.

“They have already helped the program out so much. They were both part of the 4x200 that went to state their freshman year. Ayers was voted a captain as a junior. They would both do anything you ask them to do,’ Schober said.

As freshmen state qualifiers, Ayers and Hayward were first team all-league in the 4x100 relay and first team all-league and all-district as part of the school record-setting 4x200 relay (1:45.49), and Ayers was honorable mention all-league in the 400-meter run. 

Other top athletes contributing this year are senior Faith Wright, junior Izzy Greene and sophomores Lindsey Darr, Haden Schroyer, Elise Staczek and Emily Darr.

“Izzy Greene and Haden Schroyer are turning our distance program into a strength. They both work very hard,” Schober said.

“So far it seems everyone is buying in and improving from when we first started. Taking a year off hurt everyone, but the kids are working very hard. We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores that we are seeing for the first time. Emily and Linsdey Darr, Elise Staczek, Haden Shroyer, Onna Rayford, Elena Longoria, and Mikayla Dixon have all been working hard and making contributions.”

At this year’s NBC meet, the Flyers finished fifth, scoring 62½ points. Schober knew that finishing in the upper division “would be as tough as ever.”

“Our goal is to finish towards the top every year. We were disappointed with our fourth place finish the last season we had, so we would have loved to improve on that. There are a lot of great teams in our league, so our league meet is tough each year,” Schober said.

Schober said not having a season in 2020 meant that getting his athletes acclimated was a challenge from the beginning.

“We essentially have two freshman classes. Everything was a first for over half of our team,” Schober said. “We had a lot of experience back in the 4x1 and 4x2. We lost some experience in the 4x4 and 4x8 so we wanted to see if some younger girls can step up. Our 4x1 or 4x2 relays have had a lot of success the last few years and I would like to see that continue as well as the others getting better and better.” 

For Schober, this is his seventh year heading up the program and his teams are 33-11 in dual and tri-meets, winning 13 team trophies, including seven championships coming into the season. 

The 2019 girls team was fifth at the Lakota Invite out of 18 teams, third at Clyde out of eight teams, first at Gibsonburg out of 15 teams, third at Otsego out of eight teams, fifth at Oak Harbor out of eight teams, fourth at the NBC Meet, and ninth at the district meet out of 17 teams. 

Schober was an assistant coach at Woodmore for four years and at Lake three years before taking the helm. He says there are plenty of reasons why he coaches. He lists the reasons he loves coaching as “relationships that have been developed with the kids and coaches, invite championships, and having the opportunity to coach at the state track meet the past three seasons.”

Schober continued, “The 2017 team was one-half point away from finishing the regular season perfect. They won every Tuesday meet and every invite we went to except one, which we lost by a half point. Going to state with our 4x200 team the last season we had. They broke the school record in Jesse Owens Stadium.

“I have a great staff that puts in a lot of time and effort. Our parents and community are very supportive. Most importantly it is a great group of kids that work hard. I think we all want and expect to build on the success we have established over the past few years.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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