Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Genoa’s Lindsey Brown completed a breakout junior campaign by finishing as the Division III state runner-up in the 300-meter hurdles at the Jesse Owens OHSAA State Track & Field Championships June 5-6.
“The great part about watching Lindsey in the 300 is she finishes strong,” Genoa head coach Luke Hodulik said. “You never have to worry about her being conditioned for the 300s. With her, it's all about the speed.”
Brown also qualified for state in the 100-meter hurdles but decided not to participate in an effort to focus on the 300 hurdles. She also had an injury that was hampering her at regionals.
“She kind of surprised herself by qualifying in the 100 hurdles, but what was happening at regionals and a little bit at districts was that she was banging her trail leg on each of the 100 hurdles,” Hodulik said. “She ended up with a really big bruise, and it was painful and basically it was hindering her in the 300 hurdles.
“We looked at the times, and we thought it would really take a lot for her to just make the finals in the 100 hurdles, and it could be at the expense of causing her to not run as well in the 300s, so we decided to not have her run it and focus on the 300s because we knew she had a chance to win.”
Ultimately, Brown established a new school record in the 300-meter hurdle final, breaking her own mark in 44.04. In fact, it took a state-meet-shattering record time of 42.43 from Columbus Beechcroft’s Brittany Douglas to beat her.
Brown and Douglas also shared a friendly moment after the race and on the podium as the two competed against each other quite a bit in the AAU scene over the summer.
On top of that, Brown defeated Otsego’s Molly Kramer, who finished sixth in 45.23 in the 300 hurdles, an event which featured plenty of Northwest Ohio talent. Kramer is one of the state’s top hurdlers, as she also won this year’s state championship in the 100-meter hurdle event earlier in the night.
In fact, at the Division III regional event this year, Kramer (44.77) and Brown (45.05) finished 2-3 in the 300-meter hurdles. In the 100-meter event, Kramer (14.33) won it, while Brown (15.81) finished sixth. Both will be entering their senior seasons this fall.
“They get along real well,” Hodulik said. “Last year, I think Molly beat her most of the time in the 300s, but Lindsey’s really taken off this year. Molly did end up edging her out in the regional final, but Lindsey was semi-injured. Not to take anything away from Molly because she's awesome, too, but Lindsey's kind of taken charge of the 300s in that rivalry. Molly's ahead in the 100s as she won that race. But it's really cool. Lindsey’s kind of pumped to get better in the 100s to make that one a little tighter, too, next year.”
As far as this year’s 300-meter hurdles, though, the second night of the Division III event featured a pair of lightning and severe thunderstorm delays. With Brown’s mentality, and a late-night finish in the finals, Hodulik said they were hoping for rain because they knew others would be bothered by it more than Brown.
“The thing about Lindsey is nothing phases her,” he said. “We were actually hoping that it was going to be raining during the race because it probably would have affected other people more than her, but she still ran great anyways. I guess she didn't need the rain to help her out, and she did great.”
This year’s finish also makes Hodulik wonder what’s to come next year for Brown.
“This year she's really started to notice how good she could be,” he said. “She's always had a killer drive, but what she's done mostly this year is kind of zeroed in on her sweet spot and what her best events are. She's just really been taking off.”
In a sign of that drive, Brown finished the 300-meter hurdles final around 11 p.m. on Saturday. The next day, she competed in four events at an AAU meet in Lima.
“You never have to worry about her working hard,” Hodulik said. “That's the thing. She's going to get the most out of her abilities. It was great to see her get down to state and finish runner-up. That's going to drive her. She'll give it everything she's got for the whole next year.”
