Ten area athletes to compete at state championships

COLUMBUS — The 116th annual boys and 49th annual girls Ohio High School Athletic Association track and field state championships begins Thursday afternoon at Welcome Stadium in Dayton. A total of 10 area Reflector athletes will compete in 10 different events across Division II and Division III. Action begins locally at 4:30 p.m. Thursday as New London's Madison Smith and South Central's Grace Lamoreaux will compete in the 100-meter hurdles. Smith is in the first heat, while Lamoreaux is in the third and final heat. At 6 p.m., South Central's Angela Williams will run in the 400-meter dash, then shift over to the long jump competition. Also at 6 p.m., Western Reserve's Hayden Keith competes in the shot put and Plymouth's Layne Bushey will be in the high jump. The final event for area athletes on Thursday will see Lamoreaux return for the 300 hurdles at 6:30 p.m. On Friday, Edison's Trayvon Williams will be in the second flight of the Div. II long jump at 9 a.m. At 10:45 a.m., he joins Josiah Bryant, Trevor Leimeister and Aiden Reeder in the third heat of the 4x100-meter relay.Williams then returns to the track in the 200 dash at 12:10 p.m. Those who advance to the running finals in Div. III will compete for All-Ohio placement on Friday, while the Div. II running finals are slated for Saturday. Also Friday at 8 p.m., New London's Reese Landis will compete in the Div. III 3200-meter run. Utilizing 10 cameras, the NFHS Network will cover the state tournament with live streaming coverage of every running and field event at nfhsnetwork.com/states/OH. Tickets are available at OHSAA.org/tickets. In October 2023, it was announced that the track and field state tournament was moved to Dayton for one year because of construction at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in Columbus.