Sidelines: Elmwood's Reiser, St. John's Riffle, Eastwood succeed at state meet

Katie Reiser of Elmwood won gold in the Division III 100 and 200-meter sprints in Columbus after finishing second in both events last year.

Winning elusive state titles for St. John's Cody Riffle and Elmwood's Katie Reiser, and claiming an improbable one for the Eastwood boys team, highlighted last weekend's state track and field meet at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium at Ohio State.

After finishing second earlier in the shot put finals, Riffle claimed the Division I discus title Saturday with a throw of 189 feet, three inches. He was runner-up in the event as a junior.

In Division III, Reiser won both the 100 and 200-meter sprints after finishing runner-up in both events last year. Reiser finishes her career with six top-eight state finishes.

With just three athletes who qualified for the state meet, the Eastwood boys captured the D-II team title with 38 points, topping Peninsula Woodridge (32) and Akron Buchtel (30). Eastwood's Justin Welch won titles in shot put and discus, and Cody Seifert contributed with finishes of second (100) and third (200). Nick Twining was fifth in the 800.

Other highlights of the meet included Liberty-Benton senior Seth Butler winning his third straight D-III title in the 800; Ottawa Hills' Katherine Jamieson finishing runner-up in both hurdle events, second in the 200, and finishing her career with 10 state medals — including a gold one; Archbold's 800 relay taking first place despite needing to replace three members from last year's team that was fourth; Northview senior Meredith Wagner, the D-I cross country champion, finishing runner-up in the 3200; Woodmore's Carly Pendleton finishing second in discus; Lakota's Roger Guerra claiming four medals for the second year in a row; Napoleon senior Kendall Homan finishing second in long jump and fourth in the 100 hurdles; Patrick Henry's Brooke Yungmann finishing second in long jump; Fremont St. Joseph's Brant Reardon winning D-III high jump; Defending state champion Amanda Hotaling, of North Baltimore, finishing second in pole vault.

At the Michigan state meet last weekend at Rockford, Bedford's 3200 relay team won first place and 800 runner Nick Kaiser, a state champ last year, was third.

— Ryan Autullo