Monthly Archives: February 2014

Jonny competed in the Akron Rubber City Open Meet today. This is the same venue that the State Finals will be held in a couple of weeks. Jonny had a very long day as he had to be at the school at 6:00 am and did not make it back to the school until after 10:00 pm.

Jonny ran in the 800 Meter run and the 4×400 meter relay. His first event, the 800 meter run, he was seeded in the 2nd heat of the day out of 5 heats with each heat running about 11 runners. He won his heat with a time of 2:08.92 which is another personal best. He ended up 11th out 55 competitors and did very well running against more mature runners consisting of mostly Juniors and Seniors.  The official results of the boys 800 meter run can be found here.

His second race was the 4×400 relay. He was running with a team consisting of 3 seniors again. His team had a time of 3:29.41 and won their heat, but were beat out by a team in the 2nd heat, so they took 2nd out of 30 teams.  Jonny had a split time of 54 seconds in the 400 which was his 2nd personal best of the day.  The official results of the boys 4×400 meter relay can be found here.

Next week is the Arnold Classic back at the French field house at OSU where all the Buckeye Qualifiers were held. Then March 8th is the Ohio State Indoor Championship held at the University of Akron, which is where today’s meet was held. That meet is by invitation only. At this point I have to assume that Jonny is going to be invited to run in the 4×400 relay as Granville has the 2nd best time in the state with this weeks run. The team that beat them today has the fastest time in the state. Those two teams have not run in the same heat together yet.

Jonny ran in the OSU High School Qualifier #4 today.  Next Saturday the meet is in Akron at the University of Akron.  After week following Akron is the Arnold Classic back at the French Fieldhouse at OSU.  Then the final week is back to the University of Akron for the State Indoor Track Finals which they get invited to by having an outstanding performance at one of the Qualifier meets held throughout the state.

Jonny ran in the 4×800 relay and the 4×400 relay today, just like last week.  The 4×800 didn’t go well for the boys.  The boys were put in the first heat for the 4×800 and running with the fast group.  Jonny was the lead leg and ran a good time for him of 2:12.  He found himself near the back of the pack early, but passed several kids as he made his laps.  He kept contact with the lead group and his hand off was clean.  The problem came between the 2nd and 3rd leg, when the 3rd leg runner asked for an exchange and the hand off was given one lap early, which earned them a DQ for the race.  Even with the 3rd leg having forced himself into running 1000 meters and his last 200 meter lap at a pace well below normal, because he gave it his all the previous lap, the boys would have finished 8th overall using 2 Juniors, 1 Sophmore and 1 Freshman in the race.

The 4×400 relay has Jonny running the last leg.  When he got the hand off he was pretty much by himself and that hurt him as he still learning his own abilities in the 400 meter.  With no one around to help pace him, he started very slow for a 400 meter race.  He realized at about the 150 meters in and picked up his pace significantly and started to catch the runner who had started way ahead of him to begin with and extended his lead in the first 150 meters.  Jonny came close at the end and could have easily beat him if he just kept pace with him at the beginning.  Coach counted that up as a learning experience.  The boys finished 9th overall out of 21 teams.

Jonny ran in two events this week. The 4×800 relay and 4×400 relay. He was really excited about the 4×400 as he was going to have the opportunity to run with two of the fastest 400 runners in the state. He was put in the mix with 3 seniors.

In his first race, the 4×800, he ran a good race and helped his team finish 3rd overall out of 13 teams with a time of 8:51:89. He ran the second leg of that race with a time of 2:11.

He ran the second leg of the 4×400 and got the baton with a lead, but didn’t realize how fast the pace was going to be until he was challenged coming out of the first turn. He then stepped up his pace and at the end of his 400 he was just behind the runner who challenged him. He ran a personal best of 55 seconds for his 400 meter leg of the relay. The team ended up winning the event with a time of 3:32.66 out of 16 teams overall.

Here is a video I took of the race.

Jonny ran in his second indoor track meet this week. He only ran in one event the 4×800 relay race, which is the same race he ran in last week, This time he ran the second leg of the race. He was given the baton this time with the nearest group of 3 runners ahead of him by a good 50 meters. He kept pace with the group in front of him the first two laps, at this same time the person who was behind him by about 15 meters had caught up with him. Along the back stretch on the third lap Jonny really poured it on and by the time the group in front of him started their last lap, Jonny was with the group of three runners and he left the person behind about 50 meters behind him. He slowed down and paced with the group in front of him but kicked with them and passed them in the final 100 meters. He had a personal best in the 800 meters with a time of 2:13 and had a good handoff to Thomas Patton who also ran an excellent race and caught even more people who were yet in front of them.

I think last week was their only bye week and they are running every week from here on out.  Next week he is going to run the 4×400 with the A group again and they should do very well.  Jonny is going to run very hard next week to not disappoint his running mates next week which include last years indoor 200 meter state champion and a 400 meter state champion race finalist.  Both of whom are Seniors this year.