DAYTON — Teays Valley’s Brooklyn Herbert showed that putting in the work in the offseason and taking advantage of your opportunities can pay off as she reached the awards podium in the Division I high jump championships Saturday.
Teays Valley’s Katy Zang placed 11th in the Division I 3,200 meters and Westfall junior Josh Trapp placed 15th in the Division II 800 meters.
Herbert completed her season clearing 5’ 5” to finish in a tie for seventh place with Kara Glesenkamp from Delaware Hayes.
“I’ve spent all offseason working out and trying to get better. To be able to improve my (personal record) by five inches this year has just been amazing,” Herbert said. “I’m glad I was able to pull that through for the state championships because that’s when it really matters.
“I think it’s important to put in the work in the offseason and you’ll get that good outcome that you want.”
Herbert almost didn’t make it to the state championships after placing fifth in her regional.
The top four qualifiers in each regional earn automatic berths. Two additional athletes earn spots based on having the top performances outside of the top four. She and Reese Holman (tied for 10th Saturday) of New Albany both cleared 5’ 3” at the Pickerington regional to get those last two spots.
“I thought today was just to have fun,” Herbert said. “My only pressure was just to get to this meet, I felt like. I put that pressure on myself.
“I felt good to even get here. So, I’m proud of myself because I felt that I worked hard.”
“She’s a workhorse — she works at it constantly. She wanted it really, really badly,” said Teays Valley coach Pete Gegick. (Gegick is the head boys coach but was in constant contact during the event with girls’ coach Megan Tamasovich, who was unable to be in Dayton Saturday.)
“Right before we started at conference, Megan had her start coming in at five-foot. Once she got comfortable with that, we knew,” Gegick said of Herbert’s chances. “That’s why you have those kinds of things so you can adjust to a meet like this where the starting height is five feet and you’re going to 5-2.”
Herbert cleared the opening five feet on her first attempt, missed on her initial attempt at 5’ 2” but got it on her second try and cleared 5’ 4” on her first attempt.
It came down to her third try when she cleared 5’ 5”.
Olentangy junior Chayla Rankin won the state title in the high jump. She cleared 5-0, 5-2, 5-4 and 5-6 on her first attempts (she passed on 5-5). Rankin cleared 5’ 8” on her second attempt and went out at 5’ 9”.
While there have been a couple of athletes place ninth, Herbert is the first Viking to make the podium since Claire Leatherwood placed eight in the 3,200 meters in 2005.
She is the first girls’ high jumper to podium since Krystal Dowdy won the 2003 Division II championship clearing 5’ 6” in 2003.
• Teays Valley’s Katy Zang finished her sophomore year placing 11th in the 3,200 meters. She ran the eight laps in 11:06.71.
Zang was 14th at the halfway point of the race before moving up to 13th on the fifth lap, 12th on the seventh lap and then passed Brunswick’s Amber Kemmann on the final lap to take 11th.
Elana Aldrink was the state champion in the event. The Olentangy Liberty sophomore ran the race in 10:35.34 to get the win over Chardon senior Rae Kawalec who finished in 10:37.38.
• Westfall’s Josh Trapp finished his junior year placing finishing 15th in the 800 meters.
Trapp was 13th after an initial lap of 56.56 seconds, and he finished in 15th with a time of 1:59.09.
Carroll’s Andrew Johnson won the event with a time of 1:52.61. Wyatt Vick from Zane Trace was ninth with a time of 1:56.49.
To see complete results from the state championships, click here:
Division I
Division II
Division III
