Track and field: Alyssa Webb, Oberlin shine in first day at state meet

COLUMBUS -- It was a great start for the Oberlin girls in Day 1 at the Division V Ohio high school state track and field championships on Thursday. Seniors Alyssa Webb and Olivia Hudson advanced in their respective individual events while the Phoenix advanced all three relays to today's finals. Webb earned the fastest qualifying mark with a personal-record time of 12.25. She also played a key role in her two relays that earned the fastest qualifying times. Webb led off the 800 relay that included Aubrey Abeyta, Cayman Noble and Hudson (1:42.58). She anchored the 400 relay with De'Shyana Freeman, Noble and Abeyta (49.37). "It's been very good so far. It's very satisfying," said Webb. "I do the best under pressure. My teammates and I all know that there is good competition here, so it's motivating us to do even better. We've all spent a lot of time together the past few days. Just having a bond together helps the chemistry on the track." Hudson advanced in both her individual events. She earned the No. 4 seed in the 400 (58.44) and the No. 6 seed in the 200 (25.74). Hudson capped the day by teaming with Abeyta, Freeman and Hailey Petzak to earn the No. 3 seed in the 1,600 relay (4:00.17). "Aubrey always a great job with the first leg (in the 1,600 relay)," said Hudson. "She runs scared and I think it sets everything up. We all ran smart and ran well to get everything to finals. We didn't think it would be easier coming in here in a different division. We've been working harder to make sure that we leave everything on the track." "I'm glad we made it through in all of our events to the finals," said Oberlin coach Rodney Hooks. "The ladies showed determination today and I'm very proud of them." Open Door junior Paige Pachinger advanced to finals in each of her D-IV sprints. She is seeded No. 6 for the 100 (12.41) and No. 9 for the 200 (25.91). "I'm super excited about making it to state finals. These girls are super competitive," said Pachinger. The Elyria Catholic girls' 1,600-meter relay was close to advancing to finals but fell short in Division IV. Juniors Ella Feskanich, Ari Dimacchia and Sophia Niederst, along with sophomore Madelyn Krese, were seeded 15th at 4:06.84, but came in 10th with a season-best time of 4:05.62. They missed the ninth and final qualifying spot taken by Versailles (4:04.70) by less than a second. "It was a great run and we had a great season. I'm very proud of our whole team," said Dimacchia. "It was very fun and a great experience." "I'm very proud of us. We had a great run," said Feskanich. "We put in a lot of work and training to get here, so we're glad it paid off. We exceeded expectations because we didn't initially think that we could make it here, but we proved ourselves wrong." "It was just a great race. We all left everything that we had," said Niederst. "We didn't know if this was going to be our last race or not, so we just gave it our all. I'm super proud of all of us. We worked very hard for it. We deserved where we ended up. I'm just really proud of us. It was very cool running. There's constant yelling from the stands, which helped push us to do better." It was the first time the EC girls advanced a 1,600 relay to the state tournament. "It was close, obviously. They went our there and ran their fastest time of the season," said EC coach Matt Barber. "Two weeks ago, they were only running 4:14. Today was just an end to an amazing run through the postseason. They ran their best at the state meet. That's all you can ever ask your athletes to do. I'm so immensely proud of them. The school record is 4-flat, so today is the program's fastest time in 40 years." Contact Paul Heyse at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.