Crown them: Lex homecoming queen and her escort a perfect pair on the oval

LEXINGTON – There’s Barack and Michelle, Meghan and Harry, Tom and Gisele, Ben and Jen, Bey and Jay …

… and now Alli and Leyton, a power couple in the truest, neatest, most down-to-earth sense.

Last fall, Alli Reed and Leyton Nossa attended Lexington’s homecoming dance together – she as the queen, he as her escort.

This spring – and this is where the power comes in – they are winning titles together in track and field invitationals.

She in the discus, he in the shot put.

They aren’t in-your-face about any of this because that wouldn’t mesh with their unassuming personalities.

“If you came to practice and you didn’t know they were dating, you wouldn’t know that from watching them practice,” Lex throws coach Tony Newman said. ”I left the other day after we finished lifting and he’s standing by her car, talking to her. But during practice, they’re there to get better and they treat it that way.

“From a high school kid standpoint, they treat it very professionally.”

About no PDA at practice, Alli just laughs.

“I get a fist bump from him if I get a (personal best) when lifting,” she said, “but that’s about it.”

If their story is news to you, it’s because their relationship didn’t exist until 10 months ago. With graduation just a few weeks away for them, they almost made it all the way through high school – walking the same halls, attending the same classes – without ever talking to one another.

“Believe it or not,” Leyton said.

Given his reserved manner of speaking, it’s totally believable.

Alli is the one who initiated everything.

She’s the one who made the first move.

She’s the one who suggested they attend homecoming festivities together.

She’s the one who talked him into going out for track for the first time this spring.

They had mutual friends in school, so they were aware of each other, but it took a text message from Alli last fall to break the ice.

Leyton got the text the same night his Minutemen lost a 35-28 overtime thriller to Clear Fork in the third week of the football season.

“She messaged me, ‘Sorry you lost. You played good, though,’” Leyton said.

Just like that, out of the blue, Leyton got a text that immediately lifted his spirits. Better than any pep talk.

“I wanted a way to start talking to him, so after the game I sent him the message,” Alli said. “I wanted him to feel better.

“I was drawn to him, but if I don’t get talked to first I won’t talk to someone. That’s way out of my comfort zone. So the text was my best idea. He texted right back that he appreciated it.”

Because Lexington students were doing classwork remotely due to COVID, Alli and Leyton continued texting back and forth for a couple of weeks before finally talking to each other on the first day back in school.

The next big move came when she asked him to be her escort at the homecoming assembly, where she and the entire student body found out together that she was voted queen.

“I had no reaction,” she said, “but I think I was in shock.”

She looks back on that moment as their first date. That and the homecoming dance the next night.

Leyton basically thought he had two left feet. Alli wasn’t as tough a critic.

“I thought he was a pretty good dancer,” she said. “Luckily we didn’t have to dance (by ourselves) in front of everybody because that would have been out of both of our comfort zones.”

It was the week before homecoming when Alli began recruiting Leyton for the track team.

“I started bugging him the night he came over to meet my parents,” she said. “My parents wanted to meet him before I went to homecoming with him.

“I had throws practice that day, so when I got home I was still in my throwing shoes. That’s when I brought it up. I said, ‘You should throw this year.’”

Midway through Alli’s basketball season, Leyton finally said yes.

“Usually in the spring I would just train for football season,” he said. “I wasn’t really thinking about anything else.

“I wouldn’t say she was bugging me, but I could tell she really wanted me to do it. I didn’t have anything else going on this spring, so I decided I might as well do it.”

Looking back, Alli believes she first started to really notice Leyton last spring when she was at track practice and Leyton was working out on the football practice field.

“He would be out there flipping tires,” she said. “My coach (Newman) would go over and ask him to throw and he’d say no every time.”

It’s amazing how much more persuasive a girlfriend can be.

It’s equally amazing how quickly Leyton caught on as a thrower, especially in the shot put, in just over two months. (Lex didn’t have an indoor season). He’s thrown 46-6 in a meet and 48 feet in practice. Newman believes he has the potential to hit 50 feet in the shot and 150 feet in the discus.

“He’s got a huge ceiling just because of his size (6-2, 235 pounds) and athleticism,” said Newman, a 1991 Lex grad and two-time state qualifier in the discus for the Minutemen. “There’s still a lot for him to learn because he hasn’t been doing it long enough. But he’s very coachable, he wants to learn and he wants to get better.

“He’s starting to figure out when he makes mistakes what that feeling was. That’s an important part of throwing, just learning all the intricacies. Hey, did I drop my head? Is my arm down? Are my feet pointed in the right direction? Are my shoulders back?

“Whatever it is, he’s starting to learn those pieces and put them together.”

Leyton and Alli, who has thrown 116-6 in the discus, both won their first titles at the Upper Sandusky Invitational. Leyton came back the next week and won the shot in the Galion Night Invitational.

Alli has improved by nearly 10 feet since last season with a goal of reaching 120 feet.

“I’m thankful my form isn’t perfect because I think about how far I’m throwing without perfect form,” Alli said. “That shows me I can throw farther than I am.”

This power couple’s best days are no doubt ahead of them.

Leyton, who wants to be a physical therapist, will play football at the University of Findlay after earning first-team honors on the All-News Journal, All-Ohio Cardinal Conference and All-Northwest District teams as an offensive guard. He also received All-Ohio honorable mention.

Alli is headed for Taylor University in Indiana to study nursing and compete as a thrower. It’s no coincidence that Taylor is where Newman finished his throwing career.

“(Newman) has been the biggest influence,” Alli said. “He and his wife are really good friends with my parents, so I’ve known them as long as I can remember. Ever since I started deciding on a college, they pointed me toward Taylor every time.

“When I decided I wanted to throw in college, Tony started calling every coach he knew and started talking to the Taylor coach a lot. So I went on a visit and fell in love with the school and the coach.”

Alli would love to be able to text her college coach that she won a league championship in the discus. She and Leyton will try to duplicate their matching wins at Upper Sandusky when Ashland University hosts the Ohio Cardinal Conference meet on Friday, May 13.

They enjoyed a celebratory dinner with Alli’s family at Wokano Japanese Steakhouse after their victories at Upper. But OCC titles would warrant something even nicer.

“For us to both win OCC, that would be amazing, a true celebration,” Alli said. “If that happens, we’ll go to Hudson & Essex (an upscale restaurant in downtown Mansfield), and step it up even more.”

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Crown them: Lex homecoming queen and her escort a perfect pair on the oval