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A third straight state title wasn't in the cards for Eastwood's boys track and field team last Friday and Saturday at the Division II state meet at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.
Coach Gary White's Eagles, however, had plenty to celebrate in Columbus.
Eastwood, one of only three D-II schools to send four relays to state, got three of those relays on the awards podium. The Eagles also got a runner-up finish from junior Kyle Schlumbohm in the pole vault and a sixth-place finish from senior Nick Twining in the 800-meter run en route to a 12th-place finish (17 points) in the team standings.
This year marked the first time in school history that Eastwood qualified four boys relay teams to the state meet. The other two schools to do that this season were Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary and Dayton Dunbar.
“We were pretty happy with that,” White said. “We thought three of the four could get there. We didn't think our 4x800 had a chance. Aaron Brinker was a first-year guy and he ended up being a lot better than we thought.”
The 4x800 relay, which took third at the Lexington regional (8:09.79), placed 13th at state in 8:08.48. The team consisted of seniors Brinker, Darin Goodman and Twining and freshman Gabe Fredricks.
“They wanted to place,” White said. “We could have run another eight seconds faster and still not made the podium. In my 23 years of coaching, that was by far the best 4x800 field I have seen.”
Eastwood's highest relay finish came from its 4x200 relay, which took sixth in 1:30.29. That relay, which consisted of sophomore Isaiah Conkle, senior Taylor Depew and juniors Zach Conkle and Kyle Dierker, ran 1:29.95 in Friday's prelims.
“That's one of our top three times of all time,” White said. “It seemed like all the teams ran a little slower on Saturday. We figured we could run what they did in the prelims. We figured maybe mid-1:29 was the best we could do.”
The Eagles' 4x100 relay placed seventh in 43.03, tying a school record and besting their preliminary time of 43.41. The team consisted of Depew, senior Nate Wagner, Dierker and Isaiah Conkle.
“We ran a school record and we were still seventh, so it was a pretty hot field,” White said. “You can't ask for more than that. Just do the best you can and we did, so there's not much more you can ask for.”
Eastwood's 4x400 relay placed eighth in 3:28.44 after running a 3:24.88 in the semis. The team consisted of Zach Conkle, Depew, Twining and Schlumbohm.
“That was not a good run for us at all in the finals,” White said. “That's the slowest time in a few weeks. Taylor was really feeling the heat at that point, feeling pretty slow. Nick Twining was basically sick all week. I thought maybe we could be in the top five, it just didn't happen.”
Schlumbohm was attempting to become Eastwood's third state pole vault champion. He took second at regionals with a vault of 14-6, and he duplicated that effort in Columbus.
Matt Rowland, a sophomore from Bellevue, won the title by clearing 14-9 on his first attempt. Schlumbohm missed on two attempts at 14-9.
“It was good making all the attempts on the first shot, at 12-0, 12-6, 13-0,” Schlumbohm said. “That made a big difference, staying ahead of everybody else in the competition. If I would have cleared 14-9 on my first attempt I would have had a good shot of winning. I was pretty close. They had to be pretty good jumps for me to get over it.”
Twining, who placed fifth at last year's state meet in 1:55.03, ran a slower time last Saturday (1:55.98) and fell one spot to sixth place.
“I wasn't upset with it,” Twining said. “Wednesday night I had a sore throat and I thought I could have been getting sick. I was trying to fight it off with medicine. I can't be upset, because I ran the best I could with everything going on. I was upset I had to get sick, but I did the best I could.
“It was really hot and the field was a lot stronger this year. I knew that going in, but a lot of other people stepped up who I didn't expect to. I knew they had it in them, but their time going in wasn't as good.”
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