Regional track: Wadsworth girls relay clinches trip to state

NORTH ROYALTON — Maggie Gerschutz, Ella Dolgowicz, Cami Ross and Hailey Otradovec wasted no time Wednesday at the North Royalton Division II Regional track and field meet.In the first race of the two-day competition, their Wadsworth girls 4x800-meter relay finished third to clinch the first trip to the state meet by Medina County athletes in 2026.Seniors Otradovec and Ross, junior Gerschutz and sophomore Dolgowicz ran the 95th-fastest time in the nation this spring with a 9:17.72. Suburban League members Tallmadge and Aurora were 1-2."I'm really excited and so lucky to be going with this group of girls," Gerschutz said. "We'll be ready for state, and definitely want to see how well we can do there."Gerschutz, Dolgowicz and Ross helped the Grizzlies to a fourth-place showing at the state cross country meet last fall. They'll be taking their talents back to Central Ohio next week with state swimming qualifier Otradovec.Dolgowicz and Otradovec have an excellent chance at multiple bids, having bookended their big day with a season-low time of 3:57.73 in the 4x400 preliminaries with sophomore Bree Maxwell and senior Jessica Stoops. They are the second seeds in the Friday final."I like having the recovery period between races, and I like coming back to run the 4x4," Dolgowicz said. "It's a fun group to be part of."The top five finishers in each event earned automatic state bids, along with the next three-best times from the North Royalton, Lexington, Marion Harding and Troy regionals.Katie Schuler, Madison Forshey, Olivia Keough and Celia Pylypiak of Highland finished eighth in the 4x800 but snared the final state spot via an at-large berth in a season-best 9:39.43."We were in a really competitive region, but I knew we had a chance because of our times coming in," Schuler said. "When the race wound up being faster than we thought it would be, it definitely got us excited to see the other regionals."The foursome became the first non-field event qualifiers for the Hornets since hurdlers Andrea Filote and Maddie Miller in 2021.Schuler, who has been the top distance performer in the county all spring, added her second career state berth as the sun was going down in the 3,200. The junior moved into third on the first lap and remained there in 10:58.47."I'm still kind of in shock to be going to state — and in two events — because I didn't want to get my hopes up if it didn't work out," Schuler said. "And I've got the 1,600 on Friday, so it probably won't completely sink in until after that."Wadsworth sophomore Brooke Haude and Stoops each moved on in the maximum four event finals. Otradovec has three more finals to run, including the 400, where she dominated her heat in 55.94 to grab the top seed by 1.27 seconds.Haude set career bests in the 100 hurdles, 300 hurdles and 4x100, and joined Maxwell, Stoops and Ashley Valatka on the second-seeded 4x200."I can't feel my legs and I'm so tired," she said while attempting to catch her breath. "Today was about getting to the finals, and I was happy to do it in all my events."Hornets senior Audrey Wendl earned a podium position by finishing eighth in the shot put in 35 feet, 11.5 inches.On the boys side, Highland's 4x800 of Colton Klein, Andrew Bossart, Andrew Welch and John Hildenbrand came agonizingly close to moving on. They finished eighth and their time of 8:01.13 was one position out of an at-large berth.Buckeye senior Caden Fike soared 13-0 in the pole vault, matching his Tallmadge District co-championship height, to wind up 11th.Brady Salazar, Dmitri Pshonyak, Joseph Stahl and Nolan Reith were 10th in the 4x8, beating their previous best by three seconds.Salazar, a senior, will return for the 400 final after being the runner-up in his heat and the eighth overall seed in 50.10."It definitely felt faster, but I'd grade it like a 7 because I did my job," he said. "I'll probably rest a lot and take an ice bath tomorrow to get ready for Friday."Salazar is part of a unique sibling combination of qualifiers, as his freshman sister Erin advanced to the Austintown Fitch D-III Regional in the long jump.And their older sister Allison is an NCAA Division I volleyball setter at Cleveland State."It is fun, especially since I would never have guessed Erin could do it at the start of the season because she didn't want to jump anymore after the first day," a laughing Brady said. "She can thank me for this, I guess."Contact Brian Dulik at sports@medina-gazette.com. Follow @BrianDulik on X.