COLUMBUS — Versailles’ AJ Ahrens finished his career on the podium on Friday in the state track and field meet at Jesse Owens Stadium, taking sixth in the shot put with a distance of 51-9 1-4.
“This is a great experience (being at state),” Ahrens said. “I wish I had done it more. That was a great feeling being on the podium.”
Ahrens was hoping for a little more.
“I wanted to get the school record of 52-10,” he said. “I came up a little short. …It was different than anything else. I could tell by how much adrenaline I had warming up. I could tell I was going to throw it a lot farther than normal.”
All field events were finals on Friday, while all track events other than the 4×800 relay were preliminaries for Saturday’s finals.
Josh Steinbrunner has a shot at two trips to the podium on Saturday to end his career.
Steinbrunner, the defending champion in the 110 hurdles, has the third fastest time of 14.56.
“I was happy with the way I ran,” Steinbrunner said. “I don’t think defending champion necessarily puts pressure on you. It puts a target on you for sure. There are some guys that will definitely be coming after me.”
Steinbrunner just missed the finals of the 300 hurdles, with the 11th fastest time of 39.68.
“I felt good running the race,” Steinbrunner said. “I would have like a shot to run them tomorrow and have a shot a three trips to the podium.”
Steinbrunner will also compete in high jump.
Fort Loramie reaches podium
The Redskins 4×800 relay of Collin Luthman, Noah Siegel, Jake Rethman and Joe Ballas reached the podium on Friday morning by finishing eighth in 8:10.51.
Fort Loramie’s Jarrett Meyer was fifth in the 110 hurdles in 15.00.
Prenger finishes third
Minster’s Max Prenger was third in the discus with a throw of 160-11. The distance came on his third throw of the day, after a throw of 147-3 and a foul.