Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
The Eastwood girls track program is coming off a second-place finish at the state indoor meet, which is the best finish in program history and elevates the team’s expectations heading into the outdoor season.
“It's very exciting,” Eastwood’s third-year girls head coach Nathan Howard said. “It really raises expectations in what we think we can do, and in a lot of ways, we're still a very young team. We're not going to have a ton of seniors that necessarily score points for us. We have a big freshmen group coming in, and a couple of those freshmen were at the indoor state for us and scored a lot of points.”
It’s been a few years since Eastwood won the league, and Howard thinks doubt naturally starts to creep in, but the performance at indoors really helps.
“Performing that way against really elite competition indoors raises the level of belief and the expectations of what we could be and the idea that we’re going to work to a certain standard,” he said. “We kind of raised the standard a little bit there.
“What I've loved about them so far is that it's almost a no-fear mentality, especially from the freshmen, which you don't see that with girls very often. They just attack. They're going after it. They're pushing each other really hard right now, so it brings a lot of excitement for us about what things could be this year.”
The Eagles finished second in the NBC last year behind Oak Harbor and placed top three in the league championship in the 4x100, 4x400, and 4x800 relays. Key graduates include Leah Emch, Kyrie Henline, and Mallory Sandberg.
“We will be probably a little bit weaker in the distance events this year with Leah gone,” Howard said. “She was one of the best distance runners we've ever had, so that'll leave a bit of a hole. Hopefully we have some young girls to step up there.
“All three scored quite a few points for us last year. Mallory was our best hurdler. She did really well there. She ran the 4x1 for us as well. Kyrie did well in pole vault and some relays, and then obviously Leah in the distance event.”
Replacing those three will be somewhat of a wait and see approach. Piper Sutton and Skylar Chrisman are the two returning pole vaulters, while Sutton also sprints.
The sister duo of Karissa and Kenna Nelson are both experienced hurdlers who Howard said were essentially the team’s second and third hurdlers last year.
Distance-wise, that’s still to be determined.
“There's nobody quite yet,” Howard said. “Our best distance runner returning is likely Brynn Sheets. She has a lot of good signs for her in terms of stepping into that role.”
One of several key returners in distance and high jump is Camille Foos. She finished second in the indoor state meet in the high jump, clearing 5-2 to match her school record. She also ran on the 4x2 team that broke the indoor school record.
Jenna Gallant was the runner-up in the shot put and 60m dash in the seated division, as well.
Howard believes his sprinters such as Josie Appelhans and Lauren Schuerman are going to take a big jump.
Appelhans is a junior, but she was the team’s best sprinter last year, even after losing her entire freshman year due to an injury. Schuerman played basketball, and she didn’t do a lot of indoor, but Howard said she had some really solid meets in both sprints and long jumps.
Senior Kennedy Ameling also returns in throws. She’s a returning captain, which Howard said is huge for the team, but she’s also working hard in the weight room. That’s big, as is the return of Ryleigh Perry.
“Discus and shot put was an area that we did not score a ton of points last year, and I think we’re going to be much improved in those areas,” Howard said.
Although it’s a small senior class, Howard believes Caitlyn Stiner is another impact athlete in the group.
“She runs mid-distance and distance for us, but she is just a really quality leader,” he said. “It’s one of those good kid type of classes.”
As far as younger kids, Howard believes the following group could be impact performers as freshmen: Addison Hannan (throws), Sophie Gillespie (hurdles, sprints), Ava Majzun (long jump, sprints), Gabby Provo (high jump, sprints), Taylor Mangette (distance), Melody Myers (distance), Gracyn Reiter (hurdles), and Katelin Russell (mid-distance).
Overall, Howard believes the team’s strengths will be in the sprints and sprint relays, which he feels could be special.
“We’re really looking at a goal of state meet type of stuff for the 100, the 4x1, the 4x2, the 200, the 4x4, even the 400 ... everything,” he said. “We just have a lot of talent this year, even from the freshmen group, that we think we can build on there.”
Eastwood boys also fighting for top spot
The Eastwood boys track program is also looking to get back atop the league.
“Put it this way, and if you looked at kind of our history, Oak Harbor has had a really, really, really strong team the last couple years,” Eastwood’s 15th-year head coach Brian Sabo said. “When they came in the league, we've been second to them both times. We gave them everything we had at the league by seven points, and they were third in the state last year.
“I felt we had a really strong team last year. We just couldn't quite get past a team that was better than us. We gave them everything we had. Besides them beating us at the conference meet, because they had a little bit more horsepower, I was elated how the season went last year.”
One area of strength is the team’s 4x800 relay team that won the NBC last year. Austin Miller, Henry Howard, and Ben Buehler return from that team, and Casen Henline looks to potentially join them.
Sabo said that Howard and Miller are both good senior leaders. Buehler, a junior, has run a lot of big meets, and he’s a mid-distance, distance guy. Another key junior back is Logan Miesmer in discus.
Sprinter/jumper Zach Mullholand is back, as is thrower Hunter Lauer, who Sabo said is the team’s rock. Collin Brogan is back in sprints. Cullen Shank has been the top pole vaulter for some time. He’s been a regional qualifier the past two years, and just missed state by one place.
“Those guys have seen a lot of big meets as far as point-wise, too,” Sabo said. “We're hoping to have a couple other seniors fill some roles this year.”
One key area for Eastwood this year is replacing the all-senior 4x200 relay team of Jesse Poiry, Andre Lewis, Kevin Lewis, and Daquan Oliver. They finished seventh in the Division II state track meet last year, completing historic careers.
“What we do have is we have a lot of our field eventers back,” Sabo said. “We have a lot of our distance and mid-distance kids back, and we have a lot of our hurdlers. We lost a couple of key, really big contributors, probably in the sprints more than anything, but we have a really strong foundation back.
“We only lost a thrower and one on the 4x8. (The guys on the 4x200 provided) some big points. We lost our long jump, but we have such a strong nucleus back, and I have a really good senior leadership group. They're a strong group of leaders, and they're going to lead our team athletically as well.”
Potential replacements in the sprinter voids are Collin Brogan and Bryce Coger, who have done indoor. And Mullholand will fit in there somewhere. And Cody Hefflinger is someone who has always been solid for the Eagles, as well as Carsyn Jones.
Sabo said the team’s best hurdler is sophomore multi-sport star Brayden Luidhardt. He’s already faster than a year ago, and Sabo is looking for a breakthrough year from him and some others.
“There's going to be somebody, a freshman or a sophomore, or somebody that this year all of a sudden just explodes,” he said. “I'm just not sure who that is yet. I know there will be.”
Sabo is excited to compete in Division IV this year.
“I'm excited because it's new and it's different,” he said. “That's what's always kind of nice. I'm really enjoying being around my seniors. They're great leaders. They model what our program's about. They give great effort. And then I love seeing just who rises up. There's always several who rise up and come out of nowhere.
“We do our best to give great effort and then let everything else fall where it may. Oak Harbor is still the team to beat, if you ask me, until you beat them. I would say over the years, our teams have done a really great job of diving into each other as people. We kind of always use the word 'family,' but we think it's an action versus just you break down and you say 'family.' So we value that and we talk about that.”
