State track and field: Avon girls capture state championship, continue school's incredible year

The Avon girls put everything together on the biggest stage Sunday at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium and emerged with only the second girls state track and field championship in Lorain County history.The Eagles scored in all 10 events they qualified from regionals (of 17 total events) and held off defending champ Hilliard Davidson 68-61 to stand atop Division I in Columbus.Elyria in 2003 was the other county team to capture the state title.The success on the track — the boys finished second in Division II on Sunday — completes an unprecedented school year for Avon, which tied the Ohio record for state championships in a school year. Avon won titles in the fall in football, volleyball and boys soccer."This year we all knew that we were able to do this," sophomore sprinter Ally Brediger said. "We all put in enough effort to get the team win. Everyone's just really emotional now because we worked so very hard for this. We all knew what we could do and we're all very grateful to be able to get the team win. I'm just very grateful to be able to stand on that awards stand with my teammates and knowing that we accomplished it."Avon scored in eight events last year and finished fourth with 45 points, placing behind Davidson (55), Pickerington Central (50) and Mason (48). The Eagles' previous highest placements were a pair of second-place ties in 1978 and '79 for Class AA (now Division II).Seniors Kaitlyn Reese and Lily Hamilton, Brediger and juniors Paige Justice and Kenzie Kiesel led the way.Reese finished second in the 1,600 meters in a personal-best 4:51.38. Strongsville senior Hannah Jicha was a bit quicker at 4:44.82.Reese later finished third in the 800 with a season-best 2:12.08. Hilliard Davidson senior Celia Schulte defended her title in 2:10.86, with Jicha taking second in 2:10.94."I am just so proud of this team, it's truly surreal," Reese said. "All the hard work we have put in over four years to get to this moment and the valleys that we've been through makes this so much more special. Especially our coaches that have helped me tremendously through my journey. I'm forever grateful."I could not have asked for a better way to end my high school career. I executed all of my goals of getting as much points as I could to help my teammates. I'm grateful for my career at Avon and looking forward to the next chapter at Michigan State."Brediger accomplished something perhaps no other Lorain County girl has done by earning All-Ohio in the three open sprints at the same meet.Brediger's top performance was her second in the 400, setting a school record in 55.40. Lakota West junior Saniya Taylor won the event in 55.04."I feel like we've all worked very hard for this and deserve it," Brediger said. "We all feel a passion for our sport and we don't want to let our teammates down. We all want each other to do well. We have a very special group of athletes and coaches who helped to get us here."Brediger finished fourth in the 100 (11.91) and fifth in the 200 (24.69). Mason senior Azarae Hawkins (11.61) defended her title in the 100 with New Albany senior Ric'Keya White (11.78) and Solon junior Samantha Singleton (11.91, 11.901) rounding out the top three.Hawkins came back to win the 200 (23.98), followed by Gahanna Lincoln senior Aliyah Bennett (24.33), Pickerington North senior Ava DiNovo (24.56) and Valley Forge senior Navaeh Hall (24.64)."Individually we all did very well to come together for the team win," said Brediger. "I'm so very proud of everybody and our coaches for getting us to this point and being very smart with the events we were put in."Between the 100 and 400, Brediger teamed with Jayla Antrum, Molley Kennedy and Justice for a fourth in the 800 relay (1:40.06). Gahanna Lincoln (1:37.25), Pickerington Central (1:39.12) and Pickerington North (1:39.52) took the top three spots."Obviously it's hard to do four events, especially on a hot day," Brediger said, "but I've been doing it for a few years, so I'm used to it. The heat definitely made it a lot more difficult. I tried to keep conditioning and hydrating."Justice earned All-Ohio for the second straight year in the 300 hurdles with a school-record 43.03. Hilliard Davidson senior Anna Wile (40.70) was the winner followed by Beavercreek junior Faith Brown (41.46), White (41.62) and Shaker Heights senior Jennifer Rawls (42.76).Justice earlier finished eighth in the 100 hurdles, with another school record of 14.30. She didn't make the finals a year ago, finishing 16th (15.00). Wile won the event in 13.24, a meet record, barely edging White (13.25)."It's definitely very special. It's definitely a big accomplishment for our coaches and our whole team," Justice said. "We trusted our coaches' plan and trusted our teammates, just knowing that we have each others' backs. The coaches are doing what's best for us. This is what we've been planning since last year so it definitely feels great. To be able to come back and to win it is definitely better than fourth. I'm so very grateful."This season has been a bit mentally tough for me. To make it down here and to prove myself, there were definitely a lot of emotions. I'm very happy. We all came out here, we all had a plan and we all executed. And we all wanted to do it for each other. That was our whole team goal, it was not just for ourselves."Avon also got a huge boost from Hamilton and Kiesel in the field events.Hamilton finished second in the shot put with a personal-record throw of 43 feet, 9 inches. Mason senior Austin White won the event with a toss of 44-8. A year ago Hamilton finished sixth (41-5.75).Lorain senior Brajhia Phillips also competed Sunday, placing 15th (33-5.5)."It's a lot of pressure but you know pressure is also privilege," Hamilton said. "We used the pressure to our advantage and it was successful for us. I was trying not to think about rankings a whole lot because coming in state meet rankings don't mean anything. I didn't perform my best at regionals (39-9.25) and then I ended up getting second here because I knew that I had a clean slate. It's just whoever performs their best down here."Honestly, I didn't even know going into my event that we had a really good chance of winning. Nobody let me know because they wouldn't want me to like freak out and stuff, so I was calm and collected."Hamilton and Brediger were members of the Division II state champion volleyball team."The feeling is indescribable. This year has been so amazing for Avon with all the fall sports. We knew coming in we wanted to grab one for the spring season," Hamilton said. "It takes a lot of grit but you know it's a good feeling. We were successful and I'm just so grateful to be part of this team. Everyone's so close. All the coaches are awesome."Kiesel placed third in discus (128-3). Westerville Central senior Symone Smith (137-0) and New Albany senior Reese Holman (129-4) finished 1-2."What an incredible day with a bunch of incredibly tough girls that just decided that they wanted to put team first," Avon girls coach Sam Ulery said. "They executed that plan and it worked out perfectly. Every event that we qualified from regionals to the state scored for us. That's exactly what needed to happen."We looked at last year and what we could have done and then looked at this year to see where and how we could score more points if we moved some things around in order to make that happen. The girls were definitely motivated by last year. This year they decided that this is what they wanted."JR (late coach Jim Reynolds) was a state runner-up twice and he always had that dream, so to accomplish that today with him looking down from up there and doing it the right way, I'm so proud of the girls and so proud of the effort that they gave. It's just so exciting. The seniors really took the team by the horns that we were going to do this and the underclassmen followed along and it was perfect."Lorain boys relay makes history, sets school recordThe Lorain boys made history in more ways than one as the 800 relay finished ninth with a school-record 1:27.57. Jacob Ford, Jeramiah Daniels, Jazion Moore and Donte Tinsley II broke their school record set April 17 at the LCAAA meet at Firelands.Delaware Olentangy (1:25.49) and Beavercreek (1:25.61) took the top two spots. Solon (1:27.25) grabbed the eighth and final podium spot.Although the new Lorain High, along with the former Admiral King, Southview and Lorain high schools, advanced sprint relays to state over the years, this is believed to be the first Lorain High boys team to make a sprint relay final since the mile relay placed fourth in 1926."We are extremely proud of Jacob, Jeramiah, Jazion and Donte," coach Dre Hopewell said. "This relay came to the state meet with a goal and they definitely performed well and did great things out there on the track. We feel great about the race. We know we left it all out there so we can't hang our heads about it. We just are looking forward to coming back next year and showing that we can improve even more."