Making A Statement: Track & Field Preview
A handful of state qualifiers return for the girls’ track team.
From the moment she arrived at Welcome Stadium in Dayton for the Division III state championship last spring, Worthington Christian runner Natalie Ryan knew she had reached a different level of competition.
Competing in an open event at the state meet for the first time, Ryan placed eighth in the 400 meters in a time of 1 minute, 0.37 of a second.
“You know, going in, it’s the state meet, and there’s going to be really good competition,” said Ryan, who is gearing up for her final season with the Warriors. “But you watch everyone’s times start rolling in, and you realize how close together those times are.
“Then in the finals, you notice how serious everyone is when they are stretching and when they get ready to start the race. Everyone is really locked in.”
Ryan scored the Warriors’ lone point at the meet, as the team tied with seven other teams for 65th behind champion Smithville (50). Ryan also joined junior Sydney Dolly and graduates Rachel Fife and Natalie Woodfin in a 15th-place finish in the 800 relay (1:46.83). Woodfin and Fife teamed up with seniors Ellen Mousa and Brooke Bambey to take 15th in the 100 relay (51.53), and Woodfin placed 17th in the 200 (27.31).
Coach Mark Mousa, who is entering his eighth year with the boys and girls track and field teams, said last year’s finish was the culmination of three years of work.
“This year, our girls now are in the rebuilding year,” said coach Mousa, whose team finished seventh in the Central Buckeye League meet with 62 points behind champion Buckeye Valley (137.3) and took fourth (50) behind co-champions Columbus School for Girls (93) and Fairbanks (93) and Grandview (82) at the district meet.
“That’s the thing about track. It takes a good three years to get a group up and competing. So rebuilding is never just something that happens from year to year. It often takes a cycle of three to four years to get the team back up finally.
“You just have to be patient during that time and keep reminding the team that it takes work, a lot of work.”
Losing state qualifiers Fife and Woodfin will affect the Warriors. The two graduates teamed up with Ryan and Dolly to win a title in the 800 relay (1:48.32) and helped Bambey and Ellen Mousa place second in the 400 relay (52.26) at the district meet. At the district meet, Woodfin placed fourth (13.09) and Fife was seventh (13.46) in the 100 and Woodfin took third (26.77) in the open 200. The team also lost graduate Emma Unger who took third (5:17.7) in the 1,600 run.
Worthington Christian will also begin the season without Bambey, who is recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury sustained during the girls’ soccer team’s season. Coach Mousa hopes Bambey will be able to rejoin the team in April.
Despite the graduations, coach Mousa believes his team could be strong in its relays. The team returns senior middle-distance runners Ryan, Ellen Mousa, Dolly, and Trinity Godsey.
“One of our strongest events could be the 4 x 800 relay,” he said. “We need some people to step up. There is going to be a learning curve.”
Heading up the distance corps will be junior Bekah Webster (3,200) and sophomores Zoe Ryan (800), and Olive Edgel (1,600). Zoe Ryan took 11th in the 800 (2:32.1), Edgel was 15th in the 1,600 (6:09.56), and Webster placed 10th in the 3,200 (13:48.47) at the district meet.
In the sprints, the Warriors will be led by sophomores Emma Gault and Anika Van Arendonk, who placed eighth in the 1,600 relay (4:21.43.1) at the district meet with Zoe Ryan and Kenzie Krapenc (who decided not to run this year).
“We’re extremely young in the sprints, so we’re going to have to wait and see right now,” coach Mousa said. “Some of those girls who have been part of our relays for a couple of years now are ready to emerge and help in the open events.”
As far as the field events go, seniors Mandy Custer and Mackenzie Barnes, the team’s top performers in the shot put and discus last year, are back. Custer took seventh in the shot put (30-1) at the district meet. Coach Mousa said it is just a matter of seeing who is going to step up in the other field events.
At the Central Buckeye League championship, Custer placed third in both the discus (99-5) and the shot put (32-11), and Natalie Ryan was third in the 400 (1:01.49) at the CBL meet last year.
Natalie Ryan said she’s looking forward to the challenge of rebuilding the team this year.
“We have a wonderful team this year with lots of amazing girls,” she said. “I’m excited to get to run with them and get to know them better throughout the season so we can encourage each other.”
The boys and girls teams have switched roles this season. Last year, the girl’s team was hitting their stride at the end of that three-year cycle while the boy’s team was waiting for that growth spurt to begin.
This season, the boys’ team returns as an experienced team as the girls grow into their roles. Last year, Worthington Christian scored two points at the Division III boys’ state meet and tied for 62nd with six other teams, but Marion Local won the title with 51 points.
However, the Warriors might be without their two state qualifiers this year. Camden St. John, who placed seventh in the high jump by clearing 6 feet, 5 inches last year to score the two points, graduated. Senior Cameron Robinson, who took 16th in the long jump with a 22-2.5, is currently sidelined from a lingering hamstring injury from football season.
“To be honest, we don’t know if he’s going to be able to be back,” coach Mousa said. “The long jump is an explosive sport, and having any sort of hamstring problem can make it tough.
“I feel bad for Cameron because he has a lot of potential to break our school record and be on the podium at the state meet.”
However, coach Mousa has some strong athletes returning. In the distance events, senior Dylan Wooten will lead the Warriors. At the district meet, Wooten took 12th in the 1,600 run (4:52.79) and helped the 3,200 relay of sophomores Elijah Styer and Caleb Fields and graduate Jonah Lewis place eighth (8:43.31) at the district meet. The Warriors took fourth at the event with 59 points, finishing behind champion Mount Gilead (112), Northmor (72), and Fisher Catholic (62).
Last fall, Wooten placed 56th (16:32.25) in the Division III state cross-country meet.
“He put in more training in the offseason, and he’s in pretty good shape coming into the season,” coach Mousa said. “It’s just a matter of whether Dylan is going to run the 1,600 or are we going to move him up to the 3,200.
“We also have (three-fourths of) our 3,200 relay back with Wooten, Styer, and Fields back. We’ve also added Ezra Styer, Elijah’s brother, who’s a freshman. They all are true middle-distance runners and have the potential to do well in that relay.”
Senior Caleb Holt, who led off the 800 relay with junior Hezekiah Musagala (who transferred to Westerville Central) and graduates Caleb Van Dop and Ian St. John to a fourth-place finish (1:34.66) at the district meet, heads up the sprinting events with junior Jake Mercer and sophomore Musa Boakai
“Caleb has been predominantly featured in our relays, but this year we are looking for him to be one of our key 100 runners,” coach Mousa said. “Musa has a lot of talent in the 200 and 400. Jake has been one of our relay guys, but we’re looking forward to seeing him emerge this season.”
While the Warriors may be without Camden St. John and Robinson, coach Mousa is still optimistic about what his team can do in the field events. Junior Ian St. John, Camden’s brother, is also a talented high jumper and 400 runner. Ian St. John placed fourth in the high jump (5-8), while his brother took second (6-0) at the district meet.
“He’s just an athletic kid, and he’ll definitely help us in the relays, but he potentially could be a pretty good 400 runner for us as well.”
Coach Mousa said senior Luke Hermiz, who placed third in the discus (130-5) at the CBL meet, has “all kinds of potential.”
“Luke can certainly score some points for us in the discus and the shot, and then coming in behind him are seniors Matthew Morganski and Rylan Kuershner,” he said.
At the CBL meet, the Warriors placed fifth (70) behind champion Buckeye Valley (140), Columbus Academy (89), Whitehall (89 ), and Bexley (74).
Robinson was the only Worthington Christian champion at the CBL meet, winning the long jump (22-3). The 1,600 relay team of Boakai, Ian St. John, and seniors Eli Funderburke and Hayden Huffer took second (3:36.67). Neither Funderburke nor Huffer are competing in track this season. Taking third were graduates Josh Tagoe (long jump, 20-3) and Camden St. John (110 hurdles, 15.89) and the 4 x 200 relay of Musagala, Blake Miller, Van Dop, and Musa (1:34.96).
Despite everything the boys and girls track teams have in their favor, one factor is working against Worthington Christian – its size.
Last season, the Warriors were often separated from reaching the regional and state meets by inches or fractions of a second. This season, what hurts the teams is four or five students.
“The girls’ team was moved up to Division II by having two more girls than the cutoff for Division III,” coach Mousa said. “The boys’ team moved up to Division II by having four extra boys.
“So literally every team we are competing against (in the postseason) is larger than we are,” he said. “It will be a very difficult year to advance to the state meet. They (OHSAA) must draw a line somewhere, and they literally drew it right through our gym.”