COLUMBUS Catholic Central track and field head coach Bob Stanko saw the best in state meet history, along with some really good runs and one big unfortunate mishap Friday at the Division III Ohio State Track and Field Championships at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium at Ohio State University.
And they all came from his Crusaders.
Last week the Central foursome of Eliza Scarnecchia, Bernadette DuBois, Margaret Beigel and Teddi Maslowski set the state record in the 4x200 and Stanko did not get to see it.
His only satisfaction in the feat was to hear about it thanks to a phone conversation.
Friday, he saw it.
The quartet toured the oval twice in 1:42.79, which was .02 seconds off its state-record time, but it still set a state meet record, eclipsing the old mark of 1:43.21, set by Bellaire St. John's last year.
"I'm glad I was able to see it this time," said Stanko, who missed last week's performance because he was with the boys' squad at its district meet. "I'm ecstatic I was able to see it. I just hope that we can come back again and give another performance like that.
"We have to be cautious. Tomorrow's a new day. We have to come back and do it all over again. It's going to be a dogfight."
Hot on the Crusaders' trail in that event is Gates Mills Gilmour Academy, which ran a 1:42.88.
"Our goal the whole year was to set the state record," said Maslowski, a sophomore, who anchored the relay. "Last week when we broke it we were completely out of our minds. But, now we have to go out and run hard again tomorrow."
Maslowski also anchored the 4x100 relay foursome into the final eight. She teamed with Beigel, Cassy Stevens and Mallory Waldman to a 50.36 showing, which qualified fifth.
"It felt like my chest was going to explode in that race," said Maslowski. "When I got the baton I knew we just had to qualify."
She also qualified in her specialties, the 100 hurdles (14.71) and 300 hurdles (44.18). Both are the top qualifying marks and personal bests.
Maslowski finished third last year in the 300 hurdles and seventh in the 100 hurdles.
"Being a freshman last year, during the drive up here I was panicking and once I got here the coach said 'forget it's states and forget all the people' the two most obvious things in the world," said Maslowski.
"Last year my goal was just to place in OVAC's. I didn't prepare myself for states last year because I didn't expect to get here.
"This year my goal was to place in the top three in both hurdle events. The whole season that's what I've concentrated on. Last year I never had this meet in my head."
DuBois later qualified in the 400 at 57.82.
Beigel and Scarnecchia both qualified in the 100. Beigel's time of 12.35 broke Scarnecchia's school record by .05 seconds. Scarnecchia qualified at 12.48.
"What an unbelievable performance by Margaret," said Stanko. "She just powered her way in. She looked great. She looked confident. I can't say enough about Margaret. She gets out there and does what she has to do. She doesn't complain. She's very focused and very driven.
"I am also very happy for our two seniors, Bernadette and Eliza."
For the Crusaders boys, Dan Fischer qualified in the 110 hurdles (15.17), Lance Westlake in the 100 (11.2) and John Murray in the 200 (22.29).
It is a great accomplishment for all, but Fischer, a senior, was out of commission a month ago.
"You always have it in your head that these kids can qualify," said Stanko. "On paper we knew it was going to be a little tough. But, each kid pulled through.
"I'm extremely happy for Dan, John and Lance. Dan's a senior and coming off the injury right before OVAC's (he pulled the upper part of his hamstring) I would have never thought he would have come this far after what he went through."
The unfortunate part of the day happened in the last race.
The Crusaders' 4x400 relay ran 3:57.40 last week to be in contention for the state championship, but was timed in 4:07.51 after the baton was jarred from Scarnecchia's hand and fell to the ground with about 150 meters to go in the lead leg. She went back and picked it up, but fell from the lead to eighth when she handed it off.
"I don't fault Eliza at all," said Stanko. "Things happen. That's what we've been preaching forever.
"When you're standing there 30 feet away, you see something like that happen and I've seen it happen to other teams and you wonder what it's like and now you know what it's like and it's not good. The nice thing is she had the presence of mind to go back, pick up the baton and keep going. She could have just stood there and let it go."
Stevens and Katrina Vosteen ran very good legs and DuBois anchored the team from eighth to fifth, but, it was just too much to overcome.
"They fought back and finished fifth in their heat and still ran 4:07, which is fantastic, but at the state meet you can't have any little miscues like that," said Stanko. It's very disappointing and my heart goes out to all of those girls, but we have to be able to get beyond that and move forward.
"There is nothing we can do. You can't dwell on it. It's not coming back. We just have co come back and do what we can do in the events that we are in.
"We are in six events tomorrow and have two people in one of them. We're still better than we were last year with that.
"Sure I would have loved to see us run tomorrow in that event. We had a 3:57 coming in and we would have had a shot at winning it all, but God had another plan for us and it wasn't to run tomorrow."
Division II
The Steubenville Big Red 4x100 relay team of Dwight Macon, Najee Murray, Shaq Petteway and Isiah Willis qualified sixth with a time of 43.25.
Barring any major incident, that puts them on the podium today.
Buckeye Local's Sherry Borsos will run in the 3200 and Harrison Central's Derrick Sproul in the 1600.
Edison sophomore Keeley Drabick finished tied for ninth in the high jump at 5-foot-2. Katie Davis of Cambridge won the event at 5-foot-4.
