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Gray, Seward, Nelson win 2 events each as Lady Zs top Lady Falcons
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Rochester’s R.J. Keranko is the reigning sectional champion in the 800 meters, but he was not the fastest boy on his own team in a boys track dual meet home win against visiting John Glenn at Barnhart Field Thursday.
Meanwhile, Macie Nelson and Zoe Seward won two events each as the Rochester girls also won.
Rochester won the girls meet 67-55 and the boys meet 62-61.
Girls: Rochester 67, John Glenn 55
Nelson relied on a strong finish to win the 100 hurdles in 17.4 seconds. Dual meets use hand timing, which is more inexact than the Fully Automatic Timing system used at conference and postseason meets, but if accurate, that time would be 0.22 seconds faster than the time Nelson ran in winning last year’s TRC title.
Nelson also ran 54.9 seconds on the 300 hurdles to win that race over John Glenn’s Sophia Romer, who ran a 57.7.
Meanwhile, Seward won both the 800 meters in 2:39.9 and the 1,600 in 5:41.0, and she also ran a leg on the victorious 4 x 400 and 4 x 800 relays.
Nelson ran a leg on the 4 x 100 relay for the first time and claimed a third blue ribbon.
Nelson also typically competes in the pole vault, but that was canceled Thursday due to storm damage to the pole vault pit.
“Macie’s very focused this year,” Rochester coach Ryan Helt said. “I would say today, possibly not pole vaulting early gave her a little chance to focus on specifically on opening up with the 100 hurdles, but she’s been putting in more work on sort of the block work and acceleration and things like that. It’s really hard for her to train with speed because she’s doing technical stuff with the hurdles and the pole vault all the time, so just coming out and doing speed workouts is tough, but she’s had more focus in trying to accomplish that because I think that’s the last key for her. She’s going to be really good.”
Kasey Gray won the 200 meters and also ran a leg on the 4 x 100 relay.
“Kasey looks really good,” Helt said. “She’s been killing it at workouts. I think she’s stronger than last year. She’s able to finish workouts in every rep, where last year sometimes we wouldn’t get all the way through every rep of every workout. I think she’s going to be fun to watch.”
Freshman Allyson Calloway took the 3,200 in 13:59.3 and also ran a leg on the 4 x 800 relay.
Audrey Wagner and Kendyll Bradley each ran a leg on both the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relays, and Araceli Ochoa ran a leg on both the 4 x 400 and 4 x 800 relays. Like Nelson, Wagner and Bradley were running a leg on the 4 x 100 relay for the first time.
Melody Hisey set a personal record in the shot put with a throw of 30-5 ½ to win that event, and she also took third in the discus.
Boys: Rochester 62, John Glenn 61
Chris Rohr won three blue ribbons on the night, winning the 800 and the 1,600 and running a leg on the victorious 4 x 800 relay.
Rohr said he ran 30-40 miles per week over the winter to prepare for this season. He said his 1,600 time pleased him since he had a negative split – in track jargon, that means he ran the second half of the race faster than the first – with a 2:29 over the first 800 and a 2:27 over the second 800.
But his win in the 800 might have been the most significant as Keranko was also in the race. Rohr pulled away to win in 2:14.0 while Keranko was timed in 2:18.4.
“A little bittersweet,” Rohr said when asked how it felt to beat Keranko. “He had such a good meet. … He was just so tired before that. I feel bad for beating him. He’s saying, ‘Take the win,’ but it feels wrong.”
Keranko won the 400 in 53.5 seconds about 15 minutes earlier, and he joined Rohr, Lane Shank and Wes Steininger on the 4 x 800 team.
“R.J. was coming off a pretty good 400, which for a first 400 of the year was pretty fast,” Helt said in assessing Keranko’s 400 and 800 times. “So I don’t know if it was a little bit of fatigue, or if it was just part of the workout plan that (assistant) coach (John) Wachtmann and (assistant) coach (Alex) Gudeman had for him. But it’s nice to see Chris run like that, and R.J. will get his in the 800 for sure.”
Other Rochester winners included Reece Johnson, who ran a personal best 11:31.6 and accelerated home to beat teammate Shank in the 3,200; Kaiden Towell, who ran the 110 hurdles in 16.9 seconds; and D.J. Basham, who took the long jump with a leap of 17-1 ½.
“Kaiden looked smooth in the hurdles,” Helt said. “Reece had an enormous PR. … His goal was even less than that. So I don’t know if he’ll be happy, but he should be.”
Girls track results: Rochester 67, John Glenn 55
Scoring on 5-3-1 basis for individual events and 5-0 basis for relays
Winners plus all Rochester scorers
100 m
1. Minnick (JG) – 13.30 seconds, 2. Kasey Gray (RHS) – 13.31
200 m
1. Gray (RHS) – 28.60 seconds
400 m
1. Walker (JG) – 1:06.2, 2. Audrey Wagner (RHS) – 1:08.0
800 m
1. Zoe Seward (RHS) – 2:39.9, 2. Kendyll Bradley (RHS) – 2:50.0
1,600 m
1. Zoe Seward (RHS) – 5:41.0, 2. Araceli Ochoa (RHS) – 5:59.1
3,200 m
1. Allyson Calloway (RHS) – 13:59.3
100 m hurdles
1. Macie Nelson (RHS) – 17.4 seconds, 3. Lilly Gerald (RHS) – 21.8
300 m hurdles
1. Macie Nelson (RHS) – 54.9 seconds
4 x 100 m relay
1. Rochester (Audrey Wagner, Macie Nelson, Kendyll Bradley, Kasey Gray) – 55.0 seconds
4 x 400 m relay
1. Rochester (Audrey Wagner, Araceli Ochoa, Zoe Seward, Kendyll Bradley) – 4:50.70
4 x 800 m relay
1. Rochester (Araceli Ochoa, Zoe Seward, Allyson Calloway, Kendyll Bradley) – 11:12.7
Long jump
1. Shortt (JG) – 13-2 ¾
High jump
1. Miller (JG) – 4-4, 2. Audrey Wagner (RHS) – 4-4
Discus
1. Hurford (JG) – 92-3, 3. Melody Hisey (RHS) – 79-11 1/2
Shot put
1. Melody Hisey (RHS) – 30-5 ½
Pole vault
(not contested)
Boys track results: Rochester 62, John Glenn 61
Scoring on 5-3-1 basis for individual events and 5-0 basis for relays
Winners plus all Rochester scorers
100 m
1. McMahan (JG) – 11.6 seconds
200 m
1. McMahan (JG) – 23.6 seconds, 2. D.J. Basham (RHS) – 24.1
400 m
1. R.J. Keranko (RHS) – 53.5 seconds
800 m
1. Chris Rohr (RHS) – 2:14.0, 2. R.J. Keranko (RHGS) – 2:18.4, 3. Wes Steininger (RHS) – 2:21.1
1,600 m
1. Chris Rohr (RHS) – 4:56.0, 2. Grant Bailey (RHS) – 5:09.10, 3. Wes Steininger (RHS) – 5:12.0
3,200 m
1. Reece Johnson (RHS) – 11:31.6, 2. Lane Shank (RHS) – 11:44.7
110 m hurdles
1. Kaiden Towell (RHS) – 16.9 seconds
300 m hurdles
1. Rensberger (JG) – 46.5 seconds, 2, Kaiden Towell (RHS) – 47.8, 3. Harrison Dunwoody (RHS) – 49.8
4 x 100 m relay
1. John Glenn – 45.9 seconds
4 x 400 m relay
1. John Glenn – 3:47.9, 2. Rochester – 3:50.0
4 x 800 m relay
1. Rochester (Chris Rohr, Lane Shank, Wes Steininger, R.J. Keranko) – 9:12.4, 2. John Glenn – 9:34.4
Long jump
1. D.J. Basham (RHS) – 17-1 ½
High jump
1. McGuigan (JG) – 5-6, 3. Payton Luhnow (RHS) – 5-2
Discus
1. Rice (JG) – 103-10, 2. Austin Rogers (RHS) – 99-5 ½, 3. Hunter Shriver (RHS) – 98-2
Shot put
1. Rice (JG) – 39-6, 2. Alex Griggs (RHS) – 36-4 ½, 3. Hunter Shriver (RHS) – 36-0
Pole vault
(not contested)
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