West Holmes track team growing by leaps and bounds at River View

By the time kids reach their senior year in high school the growth spurts are usually over, and they're not going to add a lot more height.

But for the lone senior on the West Holmes girls track team the name of the game is all about adding height, as Ashley Polen competes exclusively in the high jump. Launching herself 4'8" over the bar at the River View Invitational on Wednesday, April 27, Polen finished as the runner-up behind the jumper from Watkins Memorial (5'0"), helping the West Holmes team rack up 109 points and finish in second place behind Watkins Memorial (203), as the Lady Warriors and Lady Knights literally ran away from the rest of the six-school field, with Zanesville Bishop Rosecrans (68), River View (67.5), Coshocton (64.5) and Hiland (11) rounding out the final team standings.

"I'm really hoping for the best for her, being our only senior," said first-year West Holmes track coach Rich Patterson. "She has been really consistent so far this year and placed high, but I'm hoping here in the next couple of weeks she starts hitting that 5', 5'1" mark that could definitely take her to Regionals and hopefully to State. I really want her to go out on top this year."

At the other end of the spectrum, West Holmes freshman Paiten Strother has been at the top a lot this year as she just kicks off her high school career, adding another first place finish to her resume at River View by ripping through the 200-meter dash in 27.8 seconds to cross the finish line a full second ahead of the runner-up from Rosecrans.

"I think the 200 is going to be her race," said Patterson after watching Strother finish fifth in the 100-meter dash, with a time of 13.5 seconds. "When we get to tournament time we're probably going to put her in both relays too, so we'll have to make a choice between the 100 and 200, because obviously the long jump is going really well too."

Obviously, as Strother's 14' 9 1/2" jump was second only to the 15' 5" jump registered by the hometown competitor from River View on Wednesday, giving the freshman her second runner-up finish on the day after anchoring the Lady Knights 4 X 100 meter relay team to a silver medal performance behind Rosecrans, as Strother crossed the line at the 53.2 second mark, bringing home the baton after fellow freshmen Carly Woodruff and Kennedy Smith ran the middle legs and sophomore Kendra Martin set the pace from the start position.

"Kendra has started both relays all year," explained Patterson. "I stuck her in the start position in both relays because she is unflappable. She's always going to give you her best effort and starting is a very important position on the relay team. They set the trend for the rest of the relay that day and having her there is very important to the team."

Having her running the hurdles is also very important to the team as Martin took second place in the 300-meter low hurdles by covering the stretch in 50.1 seconds – only two seconds behind the winner from Watkins Memorial – and took third in the 100-meter high hurdles with a time of 17.1.

"In the hurdles she has come on like gangbusters this year," said Patterson. "When you talk about the light bulb effect, that's it with her. The 300 is probably going to be her best race as time goes on and this is the first year she's really run it. She's also going to be good in the 100-meter, no doubt about it, but I think the 300 is going to be where her bread and butter is going to be.

"The 100 is all about quick reaction. You've got to get out of the blocks and hit the hurdles fast. The 300, you basically get out fast and the last one to die wins the race."

The 400-meter dash is similar to the 300 hurdles in that respect as speedsters push themselves once around the track at top speed, which resulted in a time of 1:06.8 for West Holmes sophomore Ashley Schulz at River View, leaving her in second place behind Hiland's lone female track team member, Ashley Weaver, who covered the distance in 1:05.0.

"It's funny, when Ashley was in seventh grade I had her pegged as maybe our secret weapon but she never went out until this year," said Patterson afterward. "She was a little behind in the beginning, but I think the 400 is her race at this point. She's dropped three seconds in the last two weeks, and I can actually see her dropping a couple more seconds by the end of the season. She's very aggressive and very tough."

You want to talk about tough? Take a look at West Holmes junior weights specialist Rebecca Chamberlain, who rocketed the discus 105' 7" to take second place at River View just two days after launching her personal best throw at Orrville by slinging it 110' 5".

"She's starting to get real consistent in the 105 and 106 range," explained Patterson. "And once they get that consistency there you hope they pop one over 110 and then maybe get a little consistent up at the longer distances, and then pop a bigger one from there.

"She's really been adding to her personal records here as of late because she went 108 a couple weeks ago, then 109, and then she went 110 at Orrville. So she's been as consistent as anybody on our team."

So, too, have been West Holmes sophomore Grant Hay and junior Sloan Le, who helped lead the Knights' boys to a fourth place finish at River View by clearing 12' 6" in the pole vault to finish one, two in that event, as West Holmes would eventually rack up 77.66 team points to finish behind Watkins Memorial (204.33), Coshocton (111) and River View (97), while beating Rosecrans (19) and Hiland (17).

"I'll tell you what," said Patterson after watching Hay and Le beat the rest of the field by six inches. "If we ever get a nice night to vault, you might see a couple of 13s out of these guys. I don't think they've vaulted on a dry runway yet."

But catapulting down a runway isn't West Holmes sophomore, and 2010 State cross country qualifier, Cully Gordon's style, as he paces himself over the distance events, taking second place in the 3,200-meter run at River View with a time of 10:32.2, falling to one Watkins Memorial runner by three seconds, but beating another by four seconds after passing him coming out of the final turn.

"He was in third place coming off the final turn and passed a kid and that's never happened with Cully in the past," said Patterson. "I'm real happy to see that he's able to pick things up at the end and kick off a faster pace. Coach [Carla] Pringle has worked very hard with him on developing a little bit of leg speed and that showed."

Matt Stonebrook also had a good showing in the 800-meter run at River View, finishing third with a time of 2:11.4 – the West Holmes 800-meter relay team of Dakota Wells, Dalton Zickefoose, Matt Miller and Marcus Glassford also finished third (9:03.9) along with the 4 X 400 meter team of Wells, Zickefoose, Barry Phillips and Glassford.

"Over the last couple of meets we have kind of pulled him [Stonebrook] out of a couple races, like the 400, just so he can concentrate on the 800," explained Patterson. "And it's worked out really well. He's dropped his time significantly the last couple of weeks.

"And that's what we're going to continue to do. We're going to start specializing people and get them ready for conference and tournament time, see what kinds of improvements we can make and what kind of places we can take there."

Because that's what it's all about at this point in the track season, adding a little speed, a little distance or a little height, even if you are a senior with no more growth spurts to come.