PICKERINGTON – Erich Rhodeback ascended the podium four times, climbing his way into a pair of state berths.
Rhodeback placed in three individual events on a chilly Friday, May 28, giving him a total of four placings in individual events in the Division I regional track and field meet at Pickerington High School North.
He will move on to the state finals in the 300-meter hurdles, where he finished first. He also qualified for state in the 110-meter hurdles with a second-place finish.
His fifth-place showing in the high jump (6 feet, 1 inch on Friday) and his leap of 21-11 in the long jump (good for seventh place on Wednesday) landed him on the podium an impressive four times.
“I’m really excited about that,” Rhodeback said. “Going in, long jump and high jump were really the big questions — whether I could get it done. Once I made finals for the long jump, I knew I could do it. Then (Friday) I had three clean jumps in the high jump. I just started doing those two jumps as fun events. So with those just being my fun events, I’m really happy with how I did in them.”
It is in the hurdles where he fully shows his competitive side. No sooner had he crossed the finish line in the 300-hurdles, he was already planning how to shave precious split seconds off of his winning time of 37.95. The 300-hurdles was run as the cold and winds grew noticeably more intense.
“I was a little slow out of the blocks,” Rhodeback said. “I just need to fix my start. Of course, everyone’s faster at this level.”
Rhodeback’s time of 13.92 seconds in the 110-hurdles was just three one-hundredths of a second behind Zemen Siyoum (13.89) of Pickerington North.
“That 110 is going to be real tight between (Siyoum) and I,” Rhodeback said. “About the third hurdle, I took off; and about the fourth hurdle, I was right with him. When I went over the last hurdle, I was ahead ... I was ahead. He beat me on the final sprint and that was it.”
His time in the 110-hurdles is the new Mount Vernon record, breaking the one he set only a week prior at the district meet, which was 14.08. His times are faster than those of former Mount Vernon hurdler Sam Bethea, who was the outright 2019 state champion with a time of 14.42 in that year’s state final.
“It’s been exciting,” Mount Vernon coach Kathy Thayer said. “It’s been fun. We know where to make improvements, so I think he has yet to peak on his time. Hopefully, he can put that all together and drop more time at state.”
Jackets teammate Bryce Wiles got a big surprise the next day, finding out that he had landed an at-large state berth. He reached podium on Friday with a sixth-place finish in the 200-meter dash — clocking a time of 22.35 seconds — and went home believing that his season was over and glad to have been a regional placer.
While he wasn’t in the top four in his region, he has one of the two fastest in Division I who were not in the top four in any region and therefore qualified for state.
“After the (regional) meet, I was thinking that if it’s going to be this cold, I’m glad it’s over,” Wyles said. “Saturday morning, I was in the gym working out. I found out I made it after thinking I was done. Then I got a call from my mom. Erich Rhodeback’s dad was looking at the heat sheet for state and he saw my name on the list. Then he told my coach and my parents. When I got the call, it was such a surprise.”
