Category Archives: Track and Field

Jonny’s lingering injury has cut his track season short as he has been put on two weeks of rest again with only two weeks left in the season. He is not racing this Saturday and next week in the MAC Championships. He never got close to his high school times this season and ran the entire season with a nagging leg injury. This is the second year in a row although this time it’s the opposite leg. He will focus on recovery this summer and get back in shape later in the summer for next year.

Jonny ran at Jessie Owens Stadium at Ohio State University in the Jessie Owens Track Classic. There was a wide variety of schools there and this being Jonny’s third week of full training we were hoping to see some improvement from last weeks performance. My parents made the trip down to Columbus to watch him run. Unfortunately they were unable to talk to Jonny before or after the race as they had to leave after he was done running because they were parked in a stripped zone next to the handicap parking which was occupied by a coach bus.

Jonny got off to his normal start and settled into the back of the pack from the far outside lane. At the 200 meter mark he worked up to 8th from 9th place. At 400 meters he moved up to 7th place as he was at the back of the lead pack. Everyone else started their kick around 400 to 500 meters, but held off until about 600 meters before starting his kick. Last week at Tennessee he started his kick around the 500 meter mark and ran out of gas about 100 meters later due to his lack of conditioning from his required rest recovering from his previous leg injury. The rest of the pack moved away from him, but as he started his kick at 600 meters he started gaining on other racers and finally took over 6th place with about 30 meters. His time was 1:57.26 and overall he finished 27th out of 33 racers.

After the race he commented that he felt a lot better in the last couple hundred meters. He wasn’t confident after last week that he was going to be able to finish hard the last 300 meters, but when he started his kick later than the rest of the group his conditioning was starting to show improvement and he was able to finish strong and competitive. His times should get better over the next couple of weeks leading up to the Mac Championship in Buffalo, NY if he can improve his times and earn a spot.

Jonny ran at the Tennessee Relays held Friday the 13th at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. Nikki and I picked up Stephanie in Cincinnati and headed down to Knoxville to watch Jonny run the 800 meter run. He ran in the 3rd of 4 heats. He ran well for the first 650 meters and then fell off the pace as he had only had a couple of weeks of full training under his belt due to his leg injury late in the indoor season. He ran a 1:58 in the 84 degree weather and placed 27th out of 30 overall.

The University of Tennessee is a very nice campus located on hills near the Tennessee River. The outdoor facility was very nice and the competition included a number of big schools from several states away, including Tennessee, Mississippi State, Indiana, South Carolina, Duke, Virginia Tech, Southern Illinois, Penn, Mid Tennessee State, Eastern Michigan and of course Kent State.

Natalie Price was there representing Indiana along with her parents Nancy and Hugh. It was nice to be able to talk to them for a while. We haven’t seen them all together since Jonny and Natalie had their Graduation Party together.

Jonny and Natalie at Tennessee Relays

Jonny ran the 800 meter run at the Akron University Northeast Quad. The meet was moved indoors due to the weather. We went to their indoor facility which we have been to many times before for High School and an earlier indoor meet.

We were watching the sprints and jumping field events. They were getting ready to run the 800 meter run and we were waiting and waiting. I was checking the scored events and noticed they scored the women’s 800 meter run. We asked and found out that they were running the distance events at the outdoor track. We quickly made our way to the track across the street and Jonny had just finished his first lap of the race.

He ended up with a time of 1:57.06 and was 5th overall out of 17 athletes.

I only got the last 200 meters of his 800 meter race on video.

Jonny ran the 800 Meter Run at the Region 3 Division I Championship today held at Pickerington North High School, just outside of Columbus.  He finished with a time of 1:53.67.  At 600 Meters he got slightly tangled up with another runner and at 700 Meters he was still in 5th place.  He busted through the pack and made his move and was able to take 2nd place by the finish line.  He made it through to the State Championship held on June 3rd at Jessie Owens Stadium at Ohio State.

The official results can be found here at timerhub.com.

Below is the video I took from the race.

800 Meter Run

This evening Jonny ran in the Regional Championships.  Day 1 of the meet is reserved mostly for field events and preliminaries.  The only track final today is the 4×800 Meter Relay.  Granville is a small school that only competes in Division I for Track and Field.  They were in Division I in Cross Country for the last couple of years, but were put back down in Division II where they belong for Cross Country.  This gives Granville a big disadvantage for relays.  That being said Granville Boys still made it to the Regional Championship.  They finished 9th today with a time of 8:06.61.  After today the only boy left to compete is Jonny from Granville.

Below is the video from the race today:

800 Meter Relay

The only event Jonny participated in today was the 800 Meter Run.  He got himself in a good position from the start and at the 400 meter mark he was challenging for 1st place and putting the pressure on!  As he passed through 500 meters he switched to another gear and took the lead with 200 meters to go.  At the end he had  a 15 meter lead and took home the Central District Championship with a time of 1:55.88.  He moves on the Regional Championships next week at Pickerington North in the 4×800 Meter Relay and the 800 Meter Run.  Congratulations to Jonny on winning his first District Championship.  The official results can be found here on baumspage.

800 Meter Run

Jonny ran three events today in Day 1 of the Central District Championships.  First up was the 4×800 meter relay.  This was also the only finals event for track for the day.  Jonny was the final leg.  They needed to finish 4th or better to move on to Regionals.  Jonny got the baton with the team in 7th place.  He started taking positions at  the 300 meter mark after catching up to a pack in front of him.  At the 400 meter mark the team was in 5th place, still not well enough to advance.  At 500 meters he moved up to 4th.  At the 600 he moved up to 2nd, but was too far behind to get the win.  The team finished 2nd place with a time of 8:13.25

4×800 Meter Relay

Jonny ran in the Licking County League Championship today for the 800 meter run and 4×400 meter relay titles today,  The venue today was at Licking Heights High School.

He ran in the Buckeye Division, which is for the larger schools in the county.  They also have a Cardinal division for the smaller schools.  Before they used to run all the schools together and the smaller schools hardly stood a chance, especially in the relay races.  Even though the group of competitors is smaller to run against now, it’s good for the smaller schools to compete against each other instead of having to go against schools many times larger their size.

The weather was dry, breezy and cool with the temps in the low 60’s to upper 50’s.

First up was Jonny’s 800 Meter Run.  He got off to a good start and kept himself near the front.  He took the lead at the 400 meter mark and was challenged a little at the end and finished strong to hold on.  He finished 1st with a time of 1:58.56

800 Meter Run

Boys 4×400 took 2nd with a time of 3:34.14  Jonny ran the final leg. He got the baton in 3rd place thanks to a final push, but he was about 60 meters behind 1st and 20 meters behind 2nd.  He ended up passing the 2nd place kid in the final 30 meters.  His split was 50.3.

4×400 Meter Relay