One step away from state

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

In the realm of high school sports, Adams County can without a doubt be deemed a “county of champions”. In every sport from fall to winter to spring, Adams County squads annually bring home championships and that success continued last week at the Southeast District Division III Track Meet, hosted by Nelsonville-York High School on May 15 and 17.

All four county schools competed in the district meet, but it was the athletes from two schools who shone brighter than the rest, with records falling left and right. The girls and boys track squads from Peebles and North Adams High School combined to produce eight district champions and will have nine individual qualifiers and one relay team represented at this week’s Division III Regional Meet, all of them just one step away from the prize of competing in the OHSAA State Track Meet.

As she normally does, Peebles senior Payton Johnson put on another show in Nelsonville, bringing home a pair of district championships. Johnson was the champion of the Girls Long Jump with an effort of 17’3.75” and also brought home the title in the Girls 200M Dash. Her winning time in the 200M was 26.08. She also missed by the narrowest of margins a trifecta in the Girls 100M Dash, placing second with her time of 12.46, with the first place time being 12.45.

For the past decade, there is one name in Adams County associated with distance running, “Seas”. At last week’s district meet, Peebles senior Samantha Seas captured two district championships, winning the Girls 1600M and the Girls 3200M. In the 1600M, Seas set her personal record and a Peebles school record with a winning time of 5:06.07 and also grabbed a PR in the 3200M with a time of 11:22.26.

Joining Johnson and Seas and representing the Indians in the regional meet will be senior CJ Oldfield, who qualified in the Boys Long Jump, finishing fourth with a best jump of 20’7”. Brandon Rayburn set a new school record and qualified for regionals in the Boys 200M Dash, finishing second with a time of 22.94. Also from Peebles, Nathaniel Cummings will be competing in the regional Boys Shot Put after placing third in the district and achieving his own PR with a throw of 47’.

The Southeast District Athlete of the Year is North Adams senior Cody Hesler and he proved why at the district meet, claiming two individual championships and being part of a championship relay foursome.

Cody was the winner of the Boys 100M Dash, setting a school record in the process with his blistering time of 11.10. He also set a school record and the district record in winning the Boys 400M Dash in a time of 49.01. Hesler also qualified for regionals in the 200M Dash, placing second overall at 22.86.

Cody also combined with his brother Beau, Garrett Emerson and Dalton Pence to win the district title in the Boys 4 x 400 Relay, the quartet crossing the finish line with a time of 3:29.35, setting a school record and breaking the district record.

Beau Hesler himself brought home an individual title and will move on to the regional meet in the Boys 800M, winning the crown in a time of 1:56.39.

Also headed to the regional meet from North Adams will be Coy Fogle, who placed second in the Boys 300M Hurdles with a time of 42.91 and Caleb DeAtley, who will be part of the Regional Discus competition after finishing third at the district meet with a throw of 137’8”.

Also of note was the performance of Manchester senior Connor Darnell, who narrowly missed qualifying for the regionals in the 1600M Run, placing fifth, but his time of 4:38 was good enough to set a new Manchester school record.

The Division III Regional Meet will take place on Wednesday, May 24 and Friday, May 26 at Heath High School in Heath, Ohio and if current weather reports hold, it may be a wet track.

The athletes who advance out of the regionals will move on to the OHSAA State Meet, which will be held on May 30-June 1 at Welcome Stadium in Dayton.