»RELATED: Shawnee tops KR, reaches sectional final
White staked her claim to the 400 with a first-ever victory in the event at the Central Buckeye Conference championships at Northwestern High School on Friday. White won the Mad River Division title after chasing down Benjamin Logan front-runners Gabrielle Schmidt and Sami Meeker. White looked around immediately after crossing the line wondering if she’d won.
“It’s very exciting. I didn’t expect to win,” said White, seeded No. 3 entering the race. “I was just trying to keep close with the girl in the lane to my right and try to pick it up the last 200.”
White won in a personal best 1:06.15 for a 0.22-second victory. She wasn’t sure about Williams’ beast analysis – “Those are her words, not mine,” White said laughing – but after Friday she was the best in the Mad River.
“The sky’s the limit, I guess,” White said of the upcoming district meet. “We just try to get better every meet and if it happens, it happens. I’m proud of everyone.”
»RELATED: Friday's high school scoreboard
Williams, meanwhile, grabbed wins in the Mad River 100 dash, 200 dash and anchored the 400 relay with Lewis Taylor, Faith Gundolf and White. Lewis also won the long jump.
“Today’s been a really great day,” White said. “My quad hasn’t been feeling the best but I went out and performed a lot better than I thought I would. It’s been a great day for me and the team.”
White’s winning 100 time of 12.89 on a cold and windy evening was just off her personal-best 12.70 set during Tuesday’s CBC preliminaries.
“I really want to be in Columbus in June,” White said. “We have a really great group of girls and guys and we’ve just been going out performing and doing our best. … I’m hoping senior year will be my year.”
Northwestern’s girls finished second in the Mad River to Benjamin Logan. The Warriors trailed by 3.5 points entering the 1,600 relay, the final event, but couldn’t upset the top-seeded Raiders and finished 7.5 points behind.
In other CBC highlights:
• Shawnee’s boys entered the 1,600 relay trailing London 108-104, but came up two points shy of sharing the KT title as Jonathan Alder surged ahead and tied London for the championship with 110 points.
• Shawnee junior Robie Glass was named Kenton Trail boys athlete of the meet after winning the 100 (10.99), 200 (22.58), 400 (50.82) and long jump (6-04).
• Shawnee senior Ellie Brouhard won the KT 100 hurdles in 17.176 to edge Tecumseh freshman Mae Mastin’s 17.179
• Shawnee junior Alex Dyar won the boys 800 and junior teammate Olivia Warax won the girls 3,200.
• Tecumseh junior Kylee Mastin added the KT girls 800 to her 1,600 victory on Tuesday. She was also on the winning 800 relay team along with Mae Mastin, Katie Rawlins and Maliyah Greaves.
• Tecumseh junior Jaci Rife won the long jump.
• Graham sophomore Jason Howard won the 100 (11.41) and 200 (24.02) to earn co-Mad River athlete of the meet along with Indian Lake’s Dustin Franks.
• Kenton Ridge’s 1,600 relay team of junior Carson Jones, junior Owen Waters, senior Andrew Good and senior Justin Peterman won the boys MR title.
• Northwestern senior Landon Burns won the MR high jump. Senior Adam Riedinger won the shot put (58-01) to edge out senior teammate Blake Jamison (57-01). They were the only two throwers to surpass 51 feet in both divisions.
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