Photos by Steven Wright | Greene County News
Legacy Christian junior Levi Thompson (left) and senior Tommy Michael (right) help sophomore Wyatt Jackson (center) walk over to the podium after their team placed in the Division III boys 4 x 800 relay state finals on Thursday at Welcome Stadium.
LCA senior Ben Rodriguez (right) gets off the starting line to begin the race.
Thompson paces himself down the back stretch of his lap during the second leg of the race for the Knights.
Jackson ran the third leg of the race and pushed his way through the field to get up near the lead at one point.
Michael was able to maintain the team’s spot in the order of runners so it was able to place on the podium.
DAYTON — The Legacy Christian boys 4 x 800 relay team placed on the podium at the OHSAA Division III State Track and Field meet on Thursday.
The Knights got seventh place with a time of 8:08.38 in the race. The team of Ben Rodriguez, Levi Thompson, Wyatt Jackson and Tommy Michael set a school record for the third consecutive race in the process of making the podium.
“The thing about state is that everybody’s fast,” Michael said. “Everybody running here has a top time in the state, so making a podium even if it’s seventh place is a huge accomplishment.”
LCA saved its best race of the season for last as it eclipsed the school record time by .16 seconds. The previous mark had been set by the group at the regional meet last week that also bested the original record it set during the districts meet two weeks ago.
“We were shooting for it,” Rodriguez said of making the podium. “Nothing’s guaranteed, right? But we were pretty confident it could be one of our goals for the season and we thought we could hit it.”
It was the first time competing at state for all of the runners, with Thompson achieving the mark in his first year of running track. Rodriguez has also previously qualified for the state cross country championships.
Rodriguez and Thompson ran the initial two legs of the race starting from the inside lane and nearly had issues making the hand off of the baton amongst the conglomerate of competitors with 15 others standing at the start-finish line trying to make the same move.
“With how chaotic the line was and never having been at state, it was a whole new experience but it was awesome,” Rodriguez said.
Jackson ran the third leg and made the biggest move of any runner as he pushed up to third place at one point near the end of his first lap. Fatigue began to set in before he made the final hand off to Michael, who mostly ran with no competitors near him during the final two laps of the race to get his team into the top-8 by just under five seconds.
Jackson needed medical attention after the race, but had his teammates by his side the entire time who also helped him get over to the podium to receive their medals.
“I’ve always stood by that he runs the best third leg of anybody out there,” Michael said. “We put him in that spot because we know he’s fasted than the other people who are going to be runner there and he knows that too. He can make a move and keep those guys behind him after he passes them because he’s just got that speed.”
LCA will have one more competitor run on Friday when Caroline Hamilton take part in the girls 1600 meters.
Check out the Friday and Saturday time schedules for Beavercreek, Carroll, Cedarville and LCA state finalists.
Contact Steven Wright at 937-502-4498 and follow on X (formerly Twitter) @Steven_Wright_.
