Central Ohio Early Track Season Recap

Track season is officially underway, and although the higher-profile invitationals won’t kick off until this weekend, we wanted to provide a brief recap of the early action from the past couple of weeks. Since most teams don’t run their A-team 4x800 until the postseason, we won’t offer much coverage of that event during the regular season outside of major relay meets. However, we’ll still provide in-depth coverage of all other distance events.

Boys: In the 1600, we’ve only seen a handful of sub-4:30 performances so far. At the Gahanna Relays, 1600m Indoor State Champion Matthew Schroff clocked a 4:22.69, followed by 800m Indoor State Champion and recent University of Cincinnati commit Owen Towler, who ran 4:26.08. Upper Arlington’s Kyle Hughes is the only other runner to break 4:30 so far, with a 4:28.23 at the Buckeye Running Company Relays. Big Walnut’s Austyn Fox narrowly missed joining that group, running 4:30.41 at the Newark Invitational.

In the 800, no one has dipped under the two-minute mark yet. Lancaster’s Jonas Roush came the closest, running 2:00.25 at the Rocky Brand Invitational. Other strong early-season efforts include Thomas Worthington’s Jonas Hein at the Thomas Worthington Tri, along with Hilliard Darby’s Brendan Steele and New Albany’s Lavon Wilborn, both of whom ran sub-2:01 at the Watkins Memorial Icebreaker Invitational.

The 3200 hasn’t featured many standout times yet, but six runners have broken the 10-minute barrier: Upper Arlington’s Max Harder, Watterson’s Carter Schilling and Jack Hangen, Olentangy Orange’s Matthew Schroff and Sid Sivakumar, and Westerville Central’s Andrew Gould. However, none have gone under 9:50.

One unique aspect of early-season racing is the occasional inclusion of a 5K at some meets. The Watkins Memorial Icebreaker Invitational yielded three standout performances, with Hilliard Darby’s Kole Hyer taking the win in 15:28 and a major personal best, just ahead of New Albany’s Austin Benedict, who also ran 15:28. Hyer’s teammate Logan Behm had a strong showing as well, clocking 15:32.

Girls: In the 1600, Olentangy Orange’s Brooke Chapman opened her season with a 5:01.85 at the Gahanna Relays—likely the top distance mark so far this spring. Lancaster’s Harper Allen and Dublin Coffman’s Minori Hudson have also broken 5:15, doing so at the Gahanna Relays and Pick North Tri, respectively. Upper Arlington’s Josie Cox finished just outside that range at the Buckeye Running Company Relays.

In the 800, four athletes have broken 2:25. Gahanna freshman Abby Landrum opened her season with a 2:23.92 at Myrtle Beach, a huge personal best compared to her indoor season. Watterson’s Samantha Schmiesing and Mount Vernon’s Megan Packard both ran 2:24 at the Newark Invitational, while Upper Arlington’s Josie Cox matched that time at a dual meet.

3200 results have been varied but promising. Brooke Chapman continued her strong start with a 10:49 in a dual meet, followed closely by teammate Bella Conforti at 11:06. Mount Vernon’s Lucy Rush and Lancaster’s Harper Allen have each broken 11:20, while Watterson’s Kaitlyn Van Zandt, Gahanna Lincoln’s Olivia Smeck, and Whetstone’s Miriam Rule have all dipped under 11:30. We also want to give a shoutout to Mia Eberhardt for her impressive 18:20 5K performance at the Watkins Memorial Icebreaker Invitational.