By Ben Stroup
The Olentangy Orange boys track and field team nabbed its first conference championship in program history and the girls won their second straight during Thursday and Saturday’s OCC-Capital Division championships at Big Walnut.
The Pioneer boys, who won with 150 points, were led by their 4×200 relay team (Joel Sarpong, T.J. Coates, Sam Ansong and Zach Harrison), which won in 1:32.19; the 4×400 relay team (Coates, Tyler King, Christian Wright and Harrison), which picked up first-place points thanks to an effort of 3:30.93; Harrison, who won the 200 in 22.72 seconds; and Hunter Moore, who won the 3,200 in 9:52.86.
The Pioneer girls, who picked up the crown thanks to their 189 points, padded their total thanks to wins from Allison Guagenti in the 800 (2:22.96) and 1,600 (5:22.76), Grace Frye in the 400 (1:00.68), Zoe Bond in the 3,200 (12:20.29), and the 4×400 relay team (Brynna Johnson, Grace Frye, Guagenti and Angel Frye, who combined to win in 4:09.64).
In the field, meanwhile, Anna Watson won the pole vault by clearing 11-0.
The Olentangy boys finished second with 112.83 points while Big Walnut (83.33), Franklin Heights (79), Hayes (72), New Albany (62.50), Mount Vernon (62.33) and Worthington Kilbourne (38) smoothed out the scoring summary.
The Braves also finished second on the girls’ side, closing with 109.50 points. Big Walnut finished third with 104 points, Hayes was fourth with 85.50 points, New Albany closed fifth with 84, Kilbourne was sixth with 45, Mount Vernon finished seventh with 24 and Franklin Heights rounded out the scoring summary with 21 points.
Other area winners on the boys’ side included Hayes’ Deven Ward in the 100-meter dash (11.23 seconds), Olentangy’s Zach Balthaser in the 1,600 (4:32.02), the Braves’ Jeremy Kendle in the 400 (51.06 seconds), Olentangy’s Anthony Sasso in the 800 (2:00.78), Olentangy’s 4×800 relay team (Balthaser, Kendle, Grant Maddox and Anthony Sasso, who combined to win in 8:13.96) and the Pacers’ 4×100 relay team (Elijah Herrell, Jacob Protheroe, Blain McCormick and Ward, who teamed up to take hop honors in 44.79 seconds).
Other area standouts on the girls’ side included Big Walnut’s Kaley Rammelsberg, who edged Orange’s Hannah Dieker to win the 100 hurdles in 16.14 seconds; Olentangy’s Alexis Brookshire, who won the 300 hurdles in 48.28 seconds; Hayes’ 4×100 and 4×200 relay teams (Torie Young, Brooke Glesenkamp, Ashley Smiley and Macie Wright), which won in respective times of 52.52 seconds and 1:51.48; and Olentangy’s 4×800 relay team (Brookshire, Melina Endsley, Katie Slyh and Kendall Supinger), which won its event in 9:59.11.
Local athletes picked up a slew of wins in the field events, too.
For the boys, Big Walnut’s Abe Myers won the discus (151-07), BW’s Brandon Mosher won the shot put (52-06.25), Olentangy’s Jake Jenkusky took top honors in the high jump (6-02) and the Braves’ Kyle Brookshire won the pole vault (13-08).
In girls’ action, Big Walnut’s Sami Rammelsberg won the long jump (16-06.25), the Golden Eagles’ Anna Vrancken won the discus (109-04) and BW’s Ellie Jindra won the high jump (5-02).
OCC-CENTRAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Liberty’s girls track and field team won its second straight league title, scoring 147 points to take top honors at Thursday and Saturday’s OCC-Central Division championships at Hilliard Davidson.
Kelsey Mockler, who won the 100 hurdles (15.80 seconds), nabbed the Patriots’ lone individual crown.
The boys, who finished fifth with 92 points, were boosted by Trevor Collins, who won the 100- and 200-meter dashes in respective times of 11 and 22.24 seconds; and the 4×100 relay team (Noah Meeker, Ben Rinsma, Daniel Blaine and Collins), which won in 43.93 seconds.
BOYS LACROSSE
Gahanna 16, Buckeye Valley 9.
GIRLS LACROSSE
Westerville Central 12, Big Walnut 5.
BOYS VOLLEYBALL
Olentangy def. Liberty 21-25, 22-25, 25-23, 25-22, 15-11 (Division I district tournament).
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Follow Ben Stroup on Twitter @delgazette_ben.
