Scholar athlete: Yingst was intrigued by running early
May 29—Like taking a first-ever bite of a hot and spicy but tasty food, Brady Yingst was repelled and attracted at the same time by his first attempt at distance running.
But it didn't take long for him to embrace 5K's, cross country and track and all the miles. That has made the Perry High School senior one of the top high school distance runners in Ohio.
Last fall, he won the Division III individual state cross country championship by 15 seconds over the second-place runner. He was runner-up in the D-III 1,600-meter run at the state track meet last spring. And earlier this track season he ran the 1,600 meters in 4:09.2, an unofficial Division III Ohio record.
At Friday's Division III regional track-and-field meet at Troy, Yingst broke two regional meet (Region 12) marks.
In the 1,600-meter run, Yingst finished in 4 minutes, 14.09 seconds. Then later on, Yingst came back to win the 3,200 in a record time of 9:18.74.
Athletic accomplishments like those and a 4.08 grade point average have made him The Lima News Boys Scholar Athlete of the Year.
Yingst said his his first taste of organized running came in elementary school.
"It was probably around the third grade. I had never really done anything like that. The school I went to at the time had a little 5K race/walk and my parents got me out there, got the whole family out there," he said.
"I had this really weird feeling like, 'That really sucked,' because it hurt to run 3.1 miles. But for some reason I enjoyed it. From there, I started running more 5K's. When I got to high school I started taking it more seriously and here I am today."
He also drew inspiration from watching his sister Madison win the Division III girls 300-meter hurdles race at the 2017 state track meet while running for Temple Christian.
"That kind of drove me from a young age to see it's possible to do it from any school you come from," Yingst said.
After his state cross country win, his twin brother Ryan — also a member of the Scholar Athlete team — tweeted, "If only you knew what this dude does on a daily basis to get where he's at."
What he does starts with running 50 to 55 miles a week during cross country season and around 40 miles a week during track season.
"Right now I'm running seven days a week. Winter is really the only time I'm not running every day because I was playing basketball," Yingst said. "Some days I run a lot of miles in a day. Other days I'm hitting the track and doing a really hard speed workout.
"You will see a lot of distance runners who will go out and just put in miles and miles and miles. My dad and my cross country coach really wanted to focus on the speed aspect — how fast I can get around the track and strengthening my muscles. I tell young athletes the weight room is your best friend. The stronger you are, the faster you are."
Yingst called winning the state championship in cross country "a feeling like no other."
"Not just because of the moment but because of the three, four or five years it took to get there. I watched my sister win a championship her senior year of high school and that was my goal every year of high school. It was, 'What do I have to do better next year to get to that goal?'
"Freshman year, I came up short. Sophomore year, I came up short. Junior year, I was less than a second away at the state track meet from winning the 1,600 meters.
"When I hit that last straight away at the state cross country meet I had a comfortable lead and I think everything kind of hit me at once. I don't get emotional very often but that day I got pretty emotional after I crossed the line," he said.
He's thinking about trying to add another state championship or more at this year's state track meet.
After that he will head to Lipscomb University, an NCAA Division I school in Nashville, which attracted him because of a number of reasons, including that it is a Christian college.
Long-term, he has a dream of competing in the Olympics.
"I have a long way to go to get to those goals. But you look at a guy like Trevor Bassitt from Bluffton. That's someone I really look at as motivation. He's one of the best 400-meter hurdlers in the nation or even in the world," Yingst said. "Even though I'm from a small school, nothing is impossible. I just have to work my butt off, put in the hours, late nights and early in the morning, to get to where I want to go."
The other members of the boys Scholar Athlete team are: Mason Brandt (Leipsic), Reece Busse (New Bremen), Gavin Caprella (Lima Central Catholic), Conner Douglass (Elida), Landon Elwer (Delphos St. John's), Cael Hoehn (Ottawa-Glandorf), Brady Kerner (Delphos St. John's), Cael Rostorfer (Wapakoneta), Austin Ruhe (Miller City), Connor Sanders (Upper Scioto Valley), Jacksen Schroeder (Columbus Grove), Justin Siebeneck (Kalida), Jude Spallinger (Bluffton) and Ryan Yingst (Perry).
The Ohio State University-Lima is a sponsor of The Lima News Scholar Athlete team. It will offer the 30 top scholar athletes a scholarship for use on the Lima campus.
Reach Jim Naveau at 567-242-0414.
