COLUMBUS — Maumee Valley’s Emma Daugherty unleashed the best jumping day of her career on Friday afternoon.
Daugherty, a Maumee Valley sophomore, had never jumped any better than 5 feet, 5 inches before arriving to the Division III state track and field championships at Ohio State’s Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.
The atmosphere and surroundings of state competition led to the Hawk clearing a personal-best 5-7, which resulted in her finishing as state runner-up.
PHOTO GALLERY: State track championships, Day 1
Considering Ottoville’s Brooke Mangas out-jumped the field by setting a D-III record by clearing 5-10 to take first place, there was no reason for Daugherty to feel disappointment in finishing second.
“I feel pretty good about it,” Daugherty said of her runner-up finish. “I think one of the reasons I am better is because of the competition that [Mangas] provided. “
Swanton’s Julia Smith, who finished fourth at state in the D-II competition a year ago, also came away with a medal, finishing fourth after clearing a personal-best 5-5. Woodmore’s Carly Rothert took seventh with a height of 5-4.
“I definitely have improved, and it was great to be here with some great competition,” said Smith, who cleared 5-4 at state a year ago.
McComb’s Molly Leppelmeier ended the day knowing what first place and runner-up felt like after claiming the shot put title with a personal-best throw of 46-9 and finishing runner-up in the discus with a personal-best effort of 146-7.
“I’m so excited because this is more than I imagined coming into it,” Leppelmeier said. “I couldn’t be more happy.”
With the shot put title, the McComb junior joined her two older sisters as state track and field champions. Jackie is a two-time shot put champion (2010, 2011), and Becca won the discus title (2013).
“I think all the pressure kind of went away after discus,” Leppelmeier said. “I had already thrown a P.R. and it was just, calm down and throw the throws you know how to do.”
Woodmore’s Analicia Torres placed fifth in the shot put with a mark of 42-5.
Toledo Christian’s Micah Johnston improved in the long jump from a year ago, taking fourth place with an effort of 17-1/4. Archbold’s Sydney Ranzau finished 16th in the pole vault after clearing 9-6.
In Division III boys competition, Liberty Center’s Ryan Demaline, who entered the shot put with the top throw, came away with third place with his best throw of the day measuring 55-2½. Twin Valley South’s Aaron Deaton won with a throw of 57-91/4.
Arcadia’s Shae Watkins came up four inches shy of finishing first in the discus. His throw of 169-6 earned him second place behind Sandusky St. Mary Catholic Central’s Matthew Lamb, who recorded a winning throw of 169-10.
Eastwood’s boys 3200 relay team (Logan Baugher, Billy Barker, Josh Harper, Sam Church) placed sixth with a time of 8:11.11.
Delta’s Peyton Phillips cleared 6-2 to finish 13th in the high jump.
In Division II, Central Catholic (Matthew Griffin, Aaron Campos, Eddie Washington, Xavier Reamer) and Napoleon (Andrew Birkhold, Seth Beard, Clayton Eickholt, Jake Fellers) ran fifth (8:02.58) and sixth (8:04.94), respectively, in the 3200 boys relay.
Napoleon’s Sam Meece had a toss of 55-5½ in the shot put to place fifth, while Wauseon’s Ethan Baker recorded a throw of 55-5 to take sixth.
Central’s Arthur Greenlee turned in the top 110 hurdles time during the preliminaries, crossing the finish line at 14.13.
The Irish’s 800 relay (Marcus Easterly, Darion Greer, Deion Greer, Arthur Greenlee) also earned a spot in the finals with a time of 1:29.18 and qualified for the 400 relay finals with a time of 43.15.
Bryan (Evan Smith, Corbin Garza, Logan Deel, Jake Hausch) qualified for the 1600 relay finals after turning in a time of 3:24.61.
In the Division II girls competition, defending state champion Liberty-Benton got off to a good start.
Lindsey Bishop cleared 5-6 to place second in the high jump and Liberty-Benton’s 3200 relay team (Lindsey Bishop, Meghan Bartel, Taylor Thomas, Leah Recker) placed second with a time of 9:19.74.
Liberty-Benton leads the team competition with 16 points heading into today’s running events finals in which Recker (800), Bartel (1600), and Michaela Butler (100, 200) have an opportunity to compete for individual titles.
Eastwood’s Katelyn Meyer cleared 5-4 to finish tied for fifth in the high jump.
Also, Rossford’s Regan Clay (100, 200, 400) successfully made her way through the preliminaries in her quest to compete for three individual titles.
Central Catholic’s 1600 relay (Anna Kovacs, Megan Hanenkrath, Nakiya Taylor-McGee, Simone Green) advanced to the finals with a time of 3:59.18, which was the second fastest in the preliminaries.
Contact Donald Emmons at: demmons@theblade.com, 419-724-6302 or on Twitter @DemmonsBlade.
First Published June 4, 2016, 5:31 a.m.