Leah King leads hosts to girls team crown at Division II Perry District track and field meet

Thankfully for track and field’s sake, the storms forecasted for May 19 held off until the afternoon. But during Day 2 of the Division II Perry District, that didn’t deter Leah King from bringing the thunder early.

The host Pirates clinched their first girls district team title since 2011 with an exclamation point — a masterful reel-in by King as Perry took 4x400-meter relay with a time of 4 minutes, 6.56 seconds.

The junior got the baton with about a 25-meter margin to make up on Beaumont. She began to whittle away, particularly by hitting her 200 and 300 turns hard, then opened her stride to turn the last 40 into a sprint and take the lead with an outside pass.

It amounted to a brilliant 57.4 anchor split.

After winning the D-II 100 hurdles state title as a sophomore, King’s name was added to the sign eastbound on North Ridge Road honoring Perry’s state champions through the years. But in the name of competition as the road to Columbus draws near, the role of hospitable host only goes so far.

“On this first 100, I just made sure I stayed on her shoulder on the backstretch,” King explained. “She started to pull away, and then I knew I was coming up on her on the 150. Then, I just knew that I had to go in the last 100 and I gutted it out. Yeah, 57 is new for me.

“This is so special. The feeling is unreal. Everybody is going out there and giving it their all, and being able to come home with the win. We’re district champs — I don’t know how long it’s been since we’ve been district champs. Last year, we were runner-up. It’s such a great feeling.”

It takes a lot to render King’s hurdles work away from being the focal point, but that aspect was solid as always in addition. She took 100 hurdles in 14.23 and 300s with a 46.21.

“Yeah, they’re OK — not my best,” King said. “As of right now, I’m just going for place. Regional and state is when my time is going to drop.”

As usual, all Mia Knight did was drop hammers on the field as she began her final postseason charge to cap a decorated and program-changing career for Beachwood.

On a blustery afternoon, the Bison senior powered to firsts in 100 (11.74) and 200 (24.64) and anchored the victorious 4x1 (49.08). Last year, Knight had a strange start to Day 2 at district when she was given faulty blocks for the 100 final. This day was less eventful, but dominant as ever.

The returning D-II 100 state runner-up and champion 4x1 anchor had a front-row seat to watch her summer teammate and fellow area staple Caisja Chandler teach a perseverance lesson May 18 at the D-I Mayfield District. Like everyone else, Knight was wowed by Chandler’s 23.2 split on Euclid’s winning 4x2 and her area-record 23.78 in 200 after a 100 false start.

“Yeah, I’m pretty used to (the wind) at this point,” Knight said. “I’m just trying to run and do my best and focus on the things that I can control — obviously, the weather is not one of those things. So I’m just trying to focus on my block start and running a clean race.

“I definitely tried to stay back in the blocks (for 100) as long as possible just to try to keep my nerves down. As you probably know yesterday, anything can happen to anybody — it doesn’t really matter who. So I’m just trying to stay calm and not get into my head. I’ve done this for how many years now. I’m just trying to stay calm and do what I technically need to do to run a good race.”

As she continued her ramping up for regional and state, a welcome sight was a solid 3,200 from 2017 News-Herald girls track and field athlete of the year Leah Roter. Roter was paced well and not challenged on the back half amid an 11:36.59.

The Beachwood senior and reigning D-II state champion and area record holder in 3,200 readily admits she has not been able to put in the workload she would prefer outdoors, but the process is getting there.

“I’m perfectly fine with this time,” Roter said. “I was treating this as mostly a workout. I haven’t gotten a lot of two-miles in — or any races for that matter. It’s not been my best season, but sticking with it is the most important thing to me.

“It’s been pretty tough. I had a knee injury in the winter, and I haven’t been doing that much running, I really wanted to do the indoor, but my knee wouldn’t let me. I think it was just a good recovery — the winter was just really hard for me, anyway. Coming back this year, it’s different. But it’s my senior year — I just want to make the best of it.”

A glimpse into the future also came in the form of a nice double from Hawken freshman Ella Gilson, taking 1,600 in 5:08.70 and 800 with a 2:19.77. Both featured fine backstretch attacks on the gun lap to pull away, particularly in mile amid a pack of three with Beaumont’s Ashley Rulison and Mia Mlynek.

“It’s super encouraging because I know that I wanted to get those times — I was planning on getting those times this weekend,” Gilson said. “It’s relieving that I can do that.

“I looked at the heat sheet the day before (for 1,600), and I knew I was going to have competition. I just knew I had to stay with them and make sure I was paced with them. I was just going to try to keep my pace for the first three laps and the last lap just go for it and go as fast as I could.”

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