Columbus North’s Emerson Chambers (left) and Columbus East’s Carsyn Schlehuser lean at the finish line of the 100 meters Thursday at Columbus North High School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
Mother Nature dealt the Columbus North and Columbus East track and field teams an hour-and-a-half lightning delay just after the start of their crosstown clash Thursday.
That didn’t seem to slow down the Bull Dog boys or girls — or the Olympian boys for that matter. While North cruised to a 114-18 win on the girls side, the boys meet was much more competitive with the Bull Dogs prevailing 79-53.
“I’m really excited with both our teams tonight,” North coach Rick Sluder said. “When you come into that crosstown rivalry, and you win both, that’s a great night for us. We’ll take it any way we can, and hats’ off to East for competing really well.”
The meet featured a few double winners on both sides, along with one triple winner. North sophomore Emerson Chambers was victorious in the 100-meter hurdles (15.19 seconds), 100 (12.78) and 200 (26.33).
“It definitely feels good, especially being able to help our whole team as a group,” Chambers said. “It’s really motivating. I feel like I’ve made a lot of improvement, and our team this year has definitely pushed harder, so I feel like we’ve done a lot better this year.”
The Bull Dog boys were led by wins from Owen Russell in the 110 hurdles (15.61) and 300 hurdles (43.51) and Jace Works with the quick turnaround in his 400 (50.27)-800 (2:02.94) double. Other individual winners for North were Ethan Lovell in the pole vault (8 feet, 6 inches), Graham Pumphrey in the 1,600 (4:24.29) and Justin Reckers in the 3,200 (9:42.38).
North’s Evan Bense, Draven Martinez, Jonny Klaus and Neal White won the 4×800 relay (9:12.20). Ben Stevens, Liam Glyn-Jones, Owen Russell and Works took the 4×400 relay (3:34.24).
“We faced some adversity this week on our boys side,” Sluder said. “We had some injuries creep up on us and some sickness creep up on us, and we handled that pretty well. We pulled together as a group, we placed kids in the right spots and we pulled it together and won, and that’s what I think good teams do when they face adversity, so I’m really happy with our boys team.
“I can’t speak more highly of our distance guys,” he added. “They swept everything, and it wasn’t just three-deep, it was 7-8-9-10-11 deep. Our sprinters held our own. That’s where we’ve had some of our injuries, and our biggest thing is to get healthy in those areas. Then our field events, we just had a couple kids out. We had a couple kids twist ankles, and it cost us some points tonight.”
East won four of the five field events, getting double wins from Keaton Lawson in the high jump (6-0) and long jump (19-9 1/4) and Jared Brooks in the shot put (47-4 1/2) and discus (144-9). Kadyn Johnson-Bey took the 100 (11.29) and 200 (22.88) and teamed with Brody Miller, Keaton Lawson and Blake Moss to capture the 4×100 relay (44.13).
The Olympians also got a strong performance from Austin Menefee, whose 50.28 400 was just a hundreth-of-a-second behind Works.
“We’re really just healthy,” East boys coach Jerone Wood said. “Early in the season, we were dealing with hamstring injuries, and Austin’s been sick the last week-and-a-half, so he had a gutsy performance today. So we’re excited. We had PRs across the board. We always tell our guys, as long as we’re peaking by the time we get to conference and sectional, that’s where the money time is. That’s when we want to be our best.”
Meanwhile, in addition to Chambers’ hat trick, North got double wins from Sierra Newell in the pole vault (9-6) and long jump (16-3 1/2), Gabby Revell in the shot (35-2 1/2) and discus (115-4) and Carys Glyn-Jones in the 400 (1:00.03) and 800 (2:25.51). Other individual winners were Emma Haston in the high jump (5-2), Emma Lowther in the 1,600 (5:20.23) and Kyleigh Wolf in the 3,200 (12:27.05).
The Bull Dogs also swept the three relays. Macy Eaton, Emma Glyn-Jones, Katie Frazier and Wolf won the 4×800 (10:57.50); Avery Johnson, Lily Miller, Newell and Chambers took the 4×100 (50.43) and Lexi Denny, Hazel Sasse, Reece Peeples and Carys Glyn-Jones captured the 4×400 (4:11.71).
“This is one of the best girls teams we’ve had in a long time, and actually our girls team is facing some adversity right now,” Sluder said. “We were missing two or three key members of our sprint and hurdle squad, yet we still ran fantastic.”
The Olympians’ lone win came from Kai Scott won the 300 hurdles (50.61).
“There’s definitely some improvements,” East girls coach Kareem Ash said. “We’re still hitting (personal records) at this point in the season. Even on bad weather days, we’re hitting PRs, so I’m really happy with the route we’re going right now. We have a week break until we have another meet, so I’m expecting some big things next week.”
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