Girls Track and Field | Norwayne dominates Div. II Orrville District meet

ORRVILLE — After crossing the finish line in her 400-meter dash final Saturday, all Lacy Hess could do was drop to her knees, exhausted, and catch her breath.

But like the grueling lap the Norwayne junior just completed in personal-record time, she knew she had one more event and had to keep going.

“I had a certain coach's voice in my head that keeps telling me to ‘Dig deep,’ Hess said, referring to longtime Bobcats coach Terry O’Hare. “That's what I keep trying to do.”

That was exactly what Hess and her teammates did, as Norwayne won eight of the 14 events completed on the final day of action at Red Rider Stadium as the ‘Cats cruised to the district championship with an impressive 146½ points – 59½ better than runner-up Brookside.

Hess was just one of many individuals to advance to next weekend’s Austintown Regional in multiple events, a trip that the Bobcats are hoping will result in a road trip to Columbus next month.

“We've been training really hard in practice to get to regionals and hopefully get as many people as we can to state,” said Annabel Stanley, who won the 3,200 run and also advanced in the 1,600. “Last year, things kind of fell apart there at the end, and we're just really hoping to pull it together and get there as a team.”

Before that, however, Norwayne downright dominated the district with a combination of huge victories in the sprints and distance races.

Hess’ run in the 400 came in a personal-record time of 59.57 — 0.09 seconds better than her previous-best mark — making for a convincing win over Fairview’s Evan Koczur (1:01.33).

“I just keep trying to hit a PR every time that I run,” said Hess, who also advanced in the 200 after a career-best time of 26.63. “Having really good weather, I'm going to use that to my advantage and to try to keep pushing myself to have a chance at regionals.”

She also ran on a pair of sprint relays that qualified for Austintown – anchoring the 4x2 with teammates Ellen Henslee, Sydney Emler and Shelby Vaughn to a first-place run of 1:47.07 over Chippewa (1:49.67) and then teaming up with Henslee, Elise Uhler and Jaylee Wingate on a winning 4x4 in 4:09. Norwayne’s 4x1 also took top honors with Emler, Henslee, Uhler and Vaughn.

Combine that with Wingate putting together another monster day and the result was a convincing victory.

The junior runner ran off wins in both the 1,600 and 800, the latter race ending with an impressive final quarter mile where she was able to hold of running D-II state runner-up Malena Cybak of Tuslaw before crossing in 2:15.26.

“She started kicking with 300 to go, but I liked that,” Wingate said. “I know that if she hadn't gotten that close to me, I probably wouldn't have closed that finish as strong as I did. I'm really glad that she did and I know that I have a strong kick.”

For Cybak, who was second overall in 2:18.26, the loss was a good learning lesson heading into the final weeks of the season.

“I think I just tightened up a little bit,” said the senior, who also helped the Mustangs’ 4x4 team to a regional berth. “That last 100 hits you every time and you have to push through it. It kind of hurts every time whenever somebody beats me in the last 100, because it's what happened to me at state, it's something I need to work on. I guess it's just motivation.”

Wingate continued her streak of breaking the 5-minute mark in the 1,600, winning in 4:59.03, ahead of Cybak (5:16.59) and Stanley (5:23.11).

Stanley picked up an impressive victory in the 3,200, later in the meet, as the junior registered a 11:51.21 for the 30-plus-second win. Triway’s Ella Wigal (4th, 13:13.59) also advanced.

“A win is always a great feeling,” Stanley said. “I tend to lose to Jaylee a lot, because she's just working so hard and she's a beast, but it's made me better this year. Even if I'm not winning every race, my times are still improving and I'm happy with it.”

The Bobcats also had a district win in the pole vault as freshman Kendra Berger cleared a personal-record 8-feet-8, along with runner-up finishes from Uhler in both the 100 and 300 hurdles and Allison Morlock in the discus.

Uhler fell short in both hurdle finals to Brookside’s Jessica Gower, clocking a personal-best 16.35 in the 100-meter version and a 48.70 in the 300s, but was happy to erase the memory of tripping over the final hurdle in the 300-meter final at last weekend’s Wayne County Athletic League Championships.

“It was a little scary, coming off of county, but I felt really good today,” she said. “It was nice to have (Gower) ahead to push me, it really helped me get those times.”

Chippewa’s Naomi Wertz was right behind Uhler in both of those hurdle races, placing fourth in the 100 (16.88) and third in the 300 (49.21) to advance to regionals for the second consecutive year. The senior also anchored the 4x1 to a third-place finish.

Morlock’s final throw proved to be her best in a second-place finish in the discus. The junior posted a mark of 114-3 to finish ahead of Triway’s Maddie Kline (110-1) on a day where the conditions weren’t friendly.

“Sometimes it's things that you can change in your throw, but today the air was dry and it wasn't going,” said Morlock, who had multiple throws die in mid-air. “It was frustrating, but I got it done.

“I'm excited. It's just one step closer to state.”

A year after advancing just two individuals to regionals, Triway had a pair of sprint relays and two individuals move on after Saturday’s action.

Kalie Campbell was one of those athletes to qualify a year ago and used a career-best mark of 17-3¾ to place second in the long jump. Chippewa’s Tristan Nash also moved on with a third-place leap of 16-7¾.

After fouling her first attempt of the day, Campbell was able to post the best distance of her prep career.

“When I went for my first jump and I fouled, I got kind of tense,” she said. “I don't know, (after that first throw) I was just really feeling it. I could get really high in all of my jumps. It's really exciting.”

Campbell also ran on the Titans’ 4x1 relay that was runner-up to Norwayne, joining Ellie Golias, Addison Hudson and Kelsey Himes to finish in 51.93. Chippewas was right behind in third (52.18).

The Titans 4x2 locked up the fourth and final regional berth in 1:50.66, while Chippewa’s Abby Blaz (100, 13.05), Tuslaw’s Ashley Eberhardt (400, 1:02.99) and Chippewa’s Izzy Lattea (pole vault, personal-record 8-0) also were fourth in their respective events.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Track and Field: Norwayne dominates Orrville District