Tales From The Ocean

150 Meters into 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.

700 Meters into the race

750 Meter into the race

At the finish line.

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

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.

Jonny running the 800 Meter Run at the University of Akron in the Rubber City Meet

Jonny made the two hour trip to Akron to participate in the Rubber City Meet held at the Stile Athletics Field House. The field house is a large beautiful complex that includes a 300 meter track instead of the normal 200 meter track found at most other field houses.

Jonny ran in two events today.  The 800 Meter run and the 4×400 Meter relay.  In the 800 meter run he was placed in the 2nd heat.  From the start, he got himself positioned on the inside and was about 5th or 6th place at the 200 meter mark.  At the 500 meter mark he just moved into 3rd place.  The last 200 meters he turned it on and used to his speed to take the lead with about 130 meters to go and continued to use his speed to distance himself from second place.  He earned himself a new indoor personal best with a time of 2:00.55 which put him 7th overall out of 79 runners.  It would have been interesting to see if he would have broke 2 minutes if he were in the first heat.  Here is the video of his heat:

Jonny ran in the Otterbein Valentine High School Qualifier today at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio.  He only ran in the 1600 Meter Run today.  He finished 3rd out of 83 runners with a new personal best of 4:31.40.  The video can be found below.

Jonny ran in the Buckeye Qualifier #3 today held at OSU’s French Field House. He ran in the 800 meter run and the 4×400 relay.

In the 800 meter run he finsihed 8th in his heat and 9th overall with a time of 2:04.64. Once again he didn’t get a great start and ended up in the middle of the pack getting pushed around and pushing others to try to make space the first 100 meters or so.  Once he got to the outside he was able to pass a few people.  Although he let one of the kids he passed pass him back right at the finish line.  I don’t think he realized the guy was catching him.  I did take video, so here it is.

In the 4×400 meter run he was the first leg of the race and started out in the far outside lane, lane 6. At the gun, he started at a slow run and after the first person immediately passed him, he picked up his pace. He completed his leg in 54.9 and put the team in 2nd place after his leg. The team ended up winning their heat with a time of 3:44.27 which put them in 11th place overall out of 21 teams.  After watching the race again they really belonged in the 2nd heat and may have been able to jump a spot or two if they had some competition. Again I have video of that race.

The official results can be found on FinishTiming.com, or you can see them on the Granville Track and Field Reporting Tool.

Jonny’s second Indoor Track meet, like the first one last week, was also held at the French Field House at Ohio State located in Columbus, Ohio on January 23rd, 2016.

This week Jonny ran in the 1600 Meter Run and the 400 Meter Run.  Jonny ran in the first heat of the 1600 meter run in 4:34.21 which was good enough for 5th place overall.  I did take some video of that run and here it is.

Jonny also ran the 400 meter run about 45 minutes after competing in the mile.  He ran in the 3rd heat.  It’s funny watching our distance guys run in the 400 meter races.  In Jonny’s race he was the only one who didn’t start with blocks.  I heard of couple of people sitting around me pointing it out just before the race started.  Jonny ended up 2nd in his heat and 10th overall out 57 runners.  After the race I heard those same people sound surprised that Jonny ended up in 2nd ahead of their boys.  Jonny finished in 54.41.  Here is the video I took from that race.

The official results can be found at FinishTiming.com.  You can also find the results at the Granville Aces Track and Field Reporting Tool.