Jonny ran in a home meet this weekend, the Kent State National Qualifier. He only ran in the 800 meter run. There were several schools that participated including Pittsbutg, Akron, Buffalo, Michigan, Ohio, Ashland and Toledo. Jonny ran in the 2nd heat, the faster heat, against a total of 17 runners. He finished 3rd overall with a new personal best time of 1:54.71 for indoor. With his time he is ranked 419th in the nation at the Division I NCAA Level. He is also ranked 1277 in the mile run according to DirectAthletics.com, the official NCAA ranking site.
I took some video at ground level, and I had to work my around the full stands, so there are a few moments where I had to change positions and pick up the racers again as they came down the home stretch straight.
Jonny ran the 800 at the Akron Invitational. Unfortunately I got the flu and was unable to make the trip due to a fever, headache, nausea and overall soreness. Nikki did make the trip though and stayed all day as there was a chance that Jonny was also going to run the last event of the day, the mens 4×400, which the team ended up not starting. There were 23 teams in attendance and they split up the early sessions, the blue division from the later session the gold division. Jonny wasn’t considered a top tier gold division in the 800 which was a single heat, Instead he ran in the fastest heat of the blue division. He ran a 1:55.99 which placed him 3rd out of 20 in his division and he would have placed 9th overall out of 31 if they timed the 3 heats, 1 gold division and 2 blue division, together. Not bad for a freshmen!
Nikki was kind enough to take some video when she was there with her phone. Here is the video she took.
Jonny ran in a home dual meet against The University of Akron Zips today. Jonny was only scheduled to run the 800 Meter run, but was asked to stay warm for the 4×400 as he may be needed to step in for one of the sprinters if they were injured. As luck would have it, Jonny was asked to run in the 4×400 on the C team of sprinters for the last race of the evening. I’m glad Nikki and I stuck around or we would have missed him running in the 4×400.
His first race was the 800 Meter run and he ended up in 4th place overall, 3rd for the team missing 2nd for the team by 0.01 of a second. He would have earned points if he was second on the team. His time for the race was 1:57.53, definitely not his best time, but not a bad time either for not racing in an 800 since early last June.
Here is the video of the 800 Meter Run. Sorry for the terrible camera work. I had to spin around on the bleachers while trying to keep him in frame and keep from falling off the top bench seat I was standing on.
I only took video of Jonny’s leg of the 4 x 400 race and it is below. We weren’t sure he was actually going to run until about 20 seconds before the race started. I didn’t catch the beginning of the race and they still didn’t have a 4th runner on the team so they dropped out after 3 legs. Jonny’s coaches told him he was timed for his 400 meters at 50.9, but that he actually took a couple of steps longer in the hand off box at the end of his leg because his runner took off early.
Today Jonny was invited to participate in the Indoor State Championship for Ohio. He was entered in the 800 meter run and pre-meet was a favorite to win. He had re-injured himself a couple of weeks ago running the 400 Meter Dash here at the University of Akron. If he was going to be healthy today, he was going to do well.
Unfortunately, the injury he sustained a couple of weeks ago had no healed and he re-injured it once again during the race. He appeared to be doing OK and was starting to make his move about 250 meters left. He was advancing on the leaders and moved up to third place and as he hit the back straightaway, you could see he was in pain and struggling to keep it going. He finished the race and ended up in 13th place with a time of 2:02.1. Not well enough to make it on the stand this time. He was very disappointed and frustrated with his injury.
The good news is he actually has plenty of time to heal now as the indoor season is over and the outdoor season doesn’t get competitive for at least a month and a half.
Jonny was scheduled to run in the 400 Meter Dash and the 4×400 Meter Relay at the Rubber City Meet held at the University of Akron.
The meet was running an hour and 20 minutes ahead of schedule and Jonny just missed the early sign in for the 400 Meter Dash, so he was added to one of the later heats and the waterfall start, which meant there were at least twice as many kids on the track at the same time as opposed to the earlier heats with one runner per lane and starting blocks.
Jonny got caught in the inside lane in the middle of the pack at the first 100 meters and worked his way out to the outside and made his move at around the 200 meter mark. With just over 100 meters left in the race he was in the lead and then he pulled a hamstring. Instead of dropping out, the competitor in him told him to finish the race, even though he was in obvious pain. He had pulled a hamstring two weeks before the state championship. He was going to need to rest and we hope that he will have enough time to recover for the state meet.
The University of Akron is one of the schools he is interested in attending after high school, He was able to meet with the Akron coach and talked with him for over an hour after the end of the meet. He really liked the coach and Akron is at the top of the list of where he would like to go to school and run.
Jonny ran at the Spire Institute’s Spire Scholastic Showcase today located in Geneva, Ohio Northeast of Cleveland.
Jonny was going to have race against the best runners in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. It was going to be his first real test in the 800 since the state finals last year. He was racing against the 30 best runners in the region. He was racing in the first heat and got off to a good start. with 200 meters left in the race he took a chance to go for 2nd place and had 2nd place until about 30 or 40 meters left and was passed by the athlete he passed about 100 meters earlier. He took a chance and gave himself an opportunity to take 2nd and it was great watching him just race. He ended up 3rd in his heat and 4th overall with a time of 1:55.49. That time puts him first in the state right now for the 800 Meter Run in Division I! Congratulations Jonny.
Jonny ran at the University of Findlay today. There was an issue with the Ohio State Buckeye Qualifier team entry and a late change of plans for the indoor track team. This is the first time we have been to the University of Findlay at the Koehler Complex. He ran in two events today. The 800 meter run and the 4×400 meter relay. The first event for Jonny, the 800 meter run, was scheduled for 5:30 and the 4×400 boys relay was scheduled for 7:50 so it was going to be a late night for us, as it’s about 2 hours to Findlay.
Jonny ran in the first heat of the 800 Meter Run. He got himself out to a good start and at the 200 meter mark he was in the lead with the group close behind. At the 400 meter mark he was still in the lead but the group had spread out single file. At the 600 meter mark he was well out in front of the pack with one other runner. He was all alone at the finish and no one really challenged him to force a time that would qualify him for the state tournament. He finished with a time of 2:01.93 and his 200 meter splits were 28.41/30.71/31.77/30.75. He was first out of 81 runners.
Here is the video I took of the race.
Jonny ran in the 2nd heat of the Boys 4×400 Meter Relay. The team finished 1st in their heat unchallenged at 3:45.54. Their nearest competition was 6 seconds behind them. I had Jonny’s split at about 54.5. The team ended up 4th overall out of 14 teams.
I missed the beginning of the Boys 4×400 Meter Relay because the camera was doing something with the media card that wouldn’t allow me to record. I picked up the race about 50 meters after the start.
Jonny ran the 1600 Meter Run and 4×400 Relay at the Jarome Fields Indoor Track Meet held at the Akron University’s Louis & Freda Stile Athletics Fieldhouse today.
First up was the 1600 Meter Run. He started off staying with the main pack and let the leaders take a big lead well past 800 meters in the race. He picked up the pace around the 800 meter mark and ended up in 3rd place with a time of 4:31.72 out of 71 runners. He almost caught 2nd place and if there was another 20 meters in the race he would have easily taken 2nd place. Below is the video I took of the race.
The last race of the day was the Boys 4×400. The Granville team was in the 2nd heat. They finished with a time of 3:41.98 which was good enough for 4th place out of 12 teams. They also won their heat by a large margin. Jonny was running the 2nd leg of the race and was in 2nd place when he received the baton. He fought off another runner for about 150 meters, when the other runner came up from behind stepped on Jonny’s right foot while trying to pass him on the inside and tripped him. Jonny responded like he always does in that situation, he got mad and crushed the competition! Here is what he had to run in the rest of the race.
Jonny qualified to participate in three events in the Ohio Indoor Track State Championship held at the University of Akron. The events he qualified for were the 4×800 Meter Relay, the 1600 Meter Run and the 800 Meter Run. All three of those events are run within an hour of each other and Jonny and his coaches thought he could do the best in the 800 Meter Run, so he opted out of the other two races. One of the other 4 relay runners who ran the qualifying run also opted out because he was racing in the 1600 Meter Run 30 minutes after the 4×800 Meter Relay. Other runners got to step into the 4×800 Meter Relay and therefore more team members were able to attend the State Championships.
175 Meters into the race
200 Meters into the Race
Jonny was the 18th and final runner to qualify with a race he had two weeks ago in the Rubber City Meet at the same venue. At that Meet he knew he had to do better to qualify for the State Finals. At that meet he was placed in the slower of two heats when he should have been in the faster first heat. Jonny does better when being pushed by the competition. Anyway he knew this was his only chance at qualifying for the finals and was determined to make it. About half way through that race he was tripped by another runner from behind, but was able to bounce back up and win the race anyway with a time barely good enough to be included in the State Final. We knew he could do better if he had run with racers his own caliber and could stay out of trouble.
450 Meters into the race
Since he was the 18th and final qualifier he had to start on the very outside of the track in the double waterfall start. He was forced to stay to the outside through the first turn, which kept him from getting boxed in. I think that actually worked to his advantage as he could start to make a move whenever he wanted and not worry about having to get to the outside first. He ran a very smart race and was able to keep the leaders in grasp throughout the entire race. He recorded a time of 1:57.01 which was a new personal best for him and took 3rd place in the state finals.
500 Meters into the race
We are very proud of his performance and enjoyed watching him smile from ear-to-ear the rest of the meet.
I took video, but it was from my phone, as in the excitement I left the video camera in the car. Sorry about the blurriness in the video, the video was very shakey and I let youtube smooth it out, but it cause the video to look blurry.
Jonny was invited to run at the Central District Championships held at Otterbein University in Westerville, OH. He was only scheduled for one race the 4×800 relay. We were hoping he was also going to run the 800 meter as he is less than a second from qualifying in that event as well.
The team all ran well in the 4×800 and finished in 8:15.13 which put them in 8th in the state and they only needed to be in the top 16 to qualify. Jonny ran the 4th leg of the race and got the batan while the team was a distant 3rd place. Jonny grinded through the entire race and made up the distance to take over first place at the finish line. He ran his leg in 1:58 which would have put him in the 800 state finals if he ran that time in the 800 as he would have been 6th in the state.
Next week he will be running in the Ohio State Championship at the University of Akron for the 2nd time. I guess we are going to have to reschedule his SAT test for this upcoming Saturday! I have to apologize as there is no video this week.
If Granville was running in Division II, where they compete in all other sports, except Cross Country and Track, today’s performance would have put them in first place in the state by almost 16 seconds in the 4×800. In the 800 Meter Run Jonny would be 4th place in the state and in the 1600 Meter run he would have placed 4th place as well. He could have ran in 3 events at the State Championships! If we would have run the 800 last week in this weeks time, he would have been 1st in the state for Division II.
Looking at an article on MileSplit.com they had the top 25 Juniors for Indoor Track. Jonny was on that list twice, he actually made the top 10 list for the 800 Meter Run and the 1600 Meter Run as he is ranked 9th in the state on both. Congratulations again Jonny.
