News file photo
Fredericktown’s Colton Riel goes over a hurdle in the 110-meter hurdles at the 2019 Division III Central District championship at Watkins Memorial High School on May 18, 2019. Riel finished fourth in the race – one of four events that he qualified for regionals. Riel was hoping to get a chance to break through to the state tournament this season. Instead, springs sports were canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
FREDERICKTOWN — With close to 100 athletes on the roster, one thing the Fredericktown track and field team doesn’t have to worry about is depth.
“We have 51 on the girls roster,” Fredericktown girls coach Bob Geiger said. “I think the biggest we had before that was 48, so this is a record year.
“We had a girl come out the first week and I was like, ‘Ugh, I only have 50 uniforms.’ Our junior high uniforms are very similar. Fifty uniforms doesn’t mean they actually all fit. So, I probably had to issue 10 or so junior high uniforms.”
“We’ve got really good assistants and a good volunteer group both at the high school and the junior high level,” Fredericktown boys coach Will Hartley said. “We’ve got a lot of good people under us.”
“We really thought depth was going to be a big plus for us,” Hartley said. “We had a lot of kids coming back in both distance and sprints. We had a lot of hurdlers coming back. We have a lot of kids in throws, but out of the four groups — sprints, distance, throws and jumps — it had the least amount of experience.”
“We have depth pretty much across the board,” Geiger said. “I didn’t feel like there was a single event where we really had a weakness. There wasn’t one area that I thought we had to shore up. This is the deepest team I’ve had.”
But the COVID-19 pandemic brought things to a screeching halt.
“We had Thursday practice (on March 12) where we were listening to the Governor (Mike DeWine) talk about it,” Geiger said. “Suddenly, I get a call from the A.D. (Nathan Bellman) that Friday (March 13) was our last practice.”
Geiger gave his athletes an at-home program to work on during the break.
“Other than passing them and seeing them running — I haven’t seen any of my athletes for six weeks,” Geiger said. “I know they’re running. I’d see a kid off in the distance and recognize the stride and I’ll be like, ‘I know who that kid is.’ But once we got to the end of March, we could see the writing on the wall.”
Spring sports were officially canceled April 20.
“It was pretty rough,” Geiger said. “The first thing I thought of was the seniors that put in time and effort. I had kids that ran all through the winter. They had some pretty lofty goals. Then to suddenly say that we’re not getting the chance to do any of that, I was pretty sad for the seniors.”
“I really feel for the seniors,” Hartley said. “All of the other kids should be able to rebound and get over it once they do have the opportunity to compete, hopefully in the fall. But the seniors, this was it. Your senior year, particularly the spring of senior year, is filled with a lot of special, one-time opportunities. To see it go for one group, your heart just goes out to them.”
Senior Colton Riel was a regional qualifier the 110-meter high hurdles, the 300-meter hurdles, the 4x200-meter relay and the 4x400-meter relay in 2019. Riel was with fellow Kailin Horlacher in both relay events and with junior Steven Tumbleson in the 4x200.
“It kind of hit me hard,” Riel said about the lost season. “I didn’t get to run in a meet at all. I think about that a lot sometimes.”
He was hoping to qualify for state this season.
“My goal, mainly, was to go to state in at least one event,” Riel said. “I think it was possible. In the offseason, I just trained. I stretched a lot and I lifted. I did what I could to stay in shape. I expected our relay teams to do really well. I think our 4x2 had a really good chance of going to state.”
Junior Thomas Caputo qualified for state last year in the 4x800-meter relay along with graduates Paden Spencer, Connor Riley and Dakota Smith. Spencer also qualified in the 1,600-meter run.
Sophomores Evan France and J.J. Grennell and freshman Logan Small were also key sprinters.
Junior Titus Krabill, sophomore Xavier Comer and freshmen Owen Krabill and Zane Stricker were also key distance runners. Titus Krabill was a regional qualifier in the 4x800 last season.
Tumbleson and seniors Roghan Roddy and Corey Webb highlight the jumpers. Tumbleson was a state qualifier and Roddy, who was moving to sprints from distance last year as a runner, was a regional qualifier in the pole vault last season. Senior Nick Laher, junior Jesse VanAtta and sophomore Joshua Rashley highlighted the throwers.
“A goal that we set was top three (in the league),” Hartley said. “Mount Gilead is really solid, Highland’s always good and Northmor has been pretty consistent over the past few seasons. So, those three teams, ourselves and Centerburg, East Knox — we felt that pretty competition was pretty tight. But we felt that a good goal was to finish top three in the league meet.”
On the girls team, seniors Paige Oswalt, Leona Smith and Hannah Vaughn led the sprinters.
“Paige Oswalt and Leona Smith were two seniors that have been the backbone of our sprint crew for a lot of years,” Geiger said. “Hannah Vaughn was coming out for the first time since her freshman year.”
Sophomores Audrey Bouton, Annie Maglott and Emily Rook and freshmen Ashley Cockrell and Aspen Maggard were also key parts to the group. Oswalt, Bouton, Maglett and Rook represented the Freddies at the regional meet last year.
The distance team — led by seniors Emma Linhares, Georgie Caputo and Sammy Maglott — had plenty of motivation going into the year.
“It was less about the racing for me and more about working on building up the team because I’m a senior and I know I’m going to leave,” Linhares said. “I just wanted to make sure I left it in a good spot.”
Junior Lydia Stute, sophomore Sadie Sanders and freshman Elsa Hoam were key parts to the distance runners. Hoam was a state qualifier in cross country.
“I was really impressed with Elsa,” Linhares said. “She’s really impressive as a runner. She’s just a really great person to have on the team. She’s going to be a super-great leader. Sadie Sanders is really good and I was excited to see what she was going to pull out in the 800. I know Lydia Stute was coming back from some injuries and we were all really excited to get to race with her again.”
“We moved into Division II in cross country this year, and I had girls that had run in two or three state meets in a row and we missed it by one spot,” Geiger said. “(We had) some really hungry kids. The pieces were there. (We had) depth led by some great senior leadership.”
Seniors Meredith Overholt (thrower) and Celeste Swihart led the Freddies in the field events. Swihart was a regional qualifier in the pole vault.
Stute and freshman Sydney Wilson were set to compete in pole vault, sophomore Bella Spencer shored up a spot in the high jump and Rook was penciled in long jump.
“(There was) a lot of potential in the season that wasn’t,” Geiger said.