Prater, Vance among stars as Rochester boys track beats John Glenn
- Val T.
- 2 hours ago
- 7 min read
Calloway wins 4 blue ribbons, but Lady Zs fall
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Xavier Vance Owen Prater Allison Calloway
Rochester Owen Prater is running track and competing in the 400 meters for the first time since he was a freshman.
Teammate and fellow senior Xavier Vance is back competing in the shot put after missing most of last season recovering from knee surgery as a result of a football injury in October 2023.
Prater and Vance reminded those watching of what they missed by winning individual events at the Zebras’ 99-32 win over visiting John Glenn in their first dual meet at Barnhart Field this season.
Meanwhile, junior distance runner Allyson Calloway won four blue ribbons for the Lady Zs in a 67-56 loss.
Boys
Rochester won 14 of the 16 events in the boys meet in cruising to the win.
Bryce Baugher led a 1-2-3 sweep in the 200 meters, which also included Jabez Yarber and Maddox Jewell.
Other winners included Grant Bailey, who won the 800 in 2:13.66; Leandro Javier, who won the 1,600 in 5:11.19; Reece Johnson, who took the 3,200 in 11:51.83; Harrison Dunwoody, who won the 110 hurdles in 16.77 seconds in his final tuneup before his showdown against the Manchester duo of Carson Heath and Eli Metzger Tuesday; Clarence Garrett, who won the 300 hurdles in 45.58 seconds; Mason Hisey, who won the discus with a throw of 136-9; and Gage Zimpelman, who won the pole vault after clearing 10-0.
Rochester also swept the relays.
Spencer Backus, Jewell, Yarber and Dunwoody won the 4 x 100 relay in 46.31 seconds.
The Zebras entered four teams in the 4 x 400 relay with the group of Prater, Dunwoody, Yarber and Bailey winning 3:53.65.
Johnson, Bailey, Javier and Camdyn Furnivall teamed up to win the 4 x 800 relay in 9:18.01.
As for Prater, he busted hard out of the blocks and won in 53.28 seconds. No other runner broke 58 seconds. While hand timing at dual meets is considered unreliable, it should be noted that a time of 53.28 would have finished fifth at last year’s Plymouth sectional.
“Since not running a 400 since my freshman year … I felt that was pretty good for my first 400 of the year.”
Prater said assistant coach John Wachtmann’s helped him get through the race after his fast start.
“So once I got halfway through the second curve, I felt myself not really being able to breathe, so I just remember what coach Wachtmann told me: Move my feet as fast as I could and pump my arms, and that was what got me through that last 100 meters or so,” Prater said.
Prater said he “absolutely” needs his technique to be refined.
“Nobody’s perfect,” Prater said. “Even the Olympic guys still need work. But yeah, absolutely, but that’s what these coaches are here to do, and they’ll do a fine job at it.”
Vance hurled the shot put 46-4 and beat John Glenn’s Blake Wright by nearly five feet in his season debut. Still recovering from knee surgery, he threw the shot 38-7 and finished ninth at last year’s Plymouth sectional. The winning throw at last year’s sectional was 46-7.
Vance is still in the process of adding footwork in the circle, according to Helt.
“I think he was right around 42 for a PR (personal record),” Helt said. “So honestly, I’m not surprised to see that kind of jump. I was told by his mother that it was a standing throw. So there’s more there. We’ve always known. You can look at X and know that that strength and that power is there. It’s just a matter of putting it all together.”
Helt later praised Baugher and Garrett for their versatility, saying he can plug them in anywhere “depending on what our needs are for that particular night.”
Girls
Calloway won the 800 and the 1,600, and she was a member of the victorious 4 x 400 and 4 x 800 relays.
Her time of 2:48.33 won the 800 by more than 17 seconds over the field. Her time of 5:55.63 in the 1,600 beat the field by over 25 seconds.
Calloway ran the second leg on the 4 x 400 relay and teamed with freshman Maddie Bailon, sophomore Taylor Navara and senior anchor Audrey Wagner to win the 4 x 400 in 4:42.40. Calloway also ran the opening leg on the 4 x 800 and teamed with Ella Hake, Navara and Brooklyn Chandler to win by 2:15 over the runner-up team from John Glenn.
One week after setting a new school record in the 300 hurdles, Wagner skipped that event this time and won the 400 instead in 1:06.25. Kyra Doran was the other Rochester victor, winning the 100 hurdles in 17.50 seconds.
Freshman Kyla Conley was the only Rochester girl to score in both hurdles events. She was third in the 100 hurdles in 19.13 seconds and second in the 300 hurdles in 53.96 seconds.
Freshmen were responsible for eight of Rochester’s 56 points, and Conley accounted for four of the eight.
Conley ran the 100 hurdles, 200 hurdles, 4 x 100 relay and 4 x 400 relay in middle school. She said running the 300 hurdles has provided both a literal hurdle and a mental one.
“You have to get past the having to jump over something while you’re exhausted,” she said.
She called track a “mental sport” and said that the sport can elicit mixed feelings.
“I’ve always loved it, but I’ve always complained about it too,” Conley quipped about track, which she has run since she was a seventh-grader.
Conley praised Wagner in helping her improve.
“It’s really fun,” Conley said. “She pushes you to be better than what you know you can be, and it just helps having someone push you past your limit.”
And while Ashlynn Weyant was second in both the discus and shot put, Rochester won only seven out of an available 45 points in the field events.
“Our numbers are in the low-to-mid-50s with the guys and in the low-to-mid-20s with the girls,” Helt said. “So every girl’s got to do a little bit more. One girl that stood out was Kyla Conley. We pulled Audrey out of the 300 hurdles to give her a little bit of a challenge in the 400 tonight. I thought she responded really well. I liked Maddie Bailon tonight. I thought she looked good. … I still like what we’re doing with Kyra Doran. I think she’s got a lot of potential. Calloway’s always a steadfast leader for us. Adi Hayes, I think, is going to be somebody you hear about a lot coming up. Ashlynn Weyant did what Ashlynn does.”
In addition to the three-way home meet against Manchester and Wabash, Rochester also has a road meet at Whitko April 17 and the Oak Hill Relays April 19.
Girls results: John Glenn 67, Rochester 56
Scoring on 5-3-1 basis for individual events and 5-0 basis for relays
Winners plus all Rochester scorers
100 m
1. Goodsell (JG) – 12.70 seconds, 2. Audrey Wagner (RHS) – 13.20, 3. Lowery (JG) – 13.81
200 m
1. Goodsell (JG) – 26.78 seconds, 2. Kyra Doran (RHS) – 29.09, 3. Maddie Bailon (RHS) – 29.77
400 m
1. Audrey Wagner (RHS) – 1:06.25, 3. Ella Hake (RHS) – 1:14.03
800 m
1. Allyson Calloway (RHS) – 2:48.33, 2. Brooklyn Chandler (RHS) – 3:05.96
1,600 m
1. Allyson Calloway (RHS) – 5:55.63, 3. Brooklyn Chandler (RHS) – 6:39.58
3,200 m
1. Vincent (JG) – 13:39.75, 2. Adison Hayes (RHS) – 13:44.60
100 m hurdles
1. Kyra Doran (RHS) – 17.50 seconds, 3. Kyla Conley (RHS) – 19.13
300 m hurdles
1. Rodriguez (JG) – 51.41 seconds, 2. Kyla Conley (RHS) – 53.96
4 x 100 m relay
1. John Glenn (Lowery, Miller, Rodriguez, Goodsell) – 52.30 seconds, 2. Rochester (Maddie Bailon, Audrey Wagner, Taylor Navara, Kyra Doran) – 53.83
4 x 400 m relay
1. Rochester (Maddie Bailon, Allyson Calloway, Taylor Navara, Audrey Wagner) – 4:42.40, 3. Rochester (Kyla Conley, Vivian Miller, Addisyn Zimmerman, Jocelyn Shafer) – 5:23.77
4 x 800 m relay
1. Rochester (Allyson Calloway, Ella Hake, Taylor Navara, Brooklyn Chandler) – 12:03.50
Long jump
1. Goodsell (JG) – 17-5, 3. Emma Bays (RHS) – 11-8 ½
High jump
1. Miller (JG) – 4-6
Discus
1. Stanley (JG) – 92-6, 2. Ashlynn Weyant (RHS) – 83-1
Shot put
1. Stanley (JG) – 35-9, 2. Ashlynn Weyant (RHS) – 30-10 ½
Pole vault
(no vaulters cleared a height)
Boys results: Rochester 99, John Glenn 32
Scoring on 5-3-1 basis for individual events and 5-0 basis for relays
Winners plus all Rochester scorers
100 m
1. McGuigan (JG) – 11.78 seconds, 2. Spencer Backus (RHS) – 12.06, 3. Jabez Yarber (RHS) – 12.27
200 m
1. Bryce Baugher (RHS) – 24.66 seconds, 2. Jabez Yarber (RHS) – 24.78, 3. Maddox Jewell (RHS) – 25.28
400 m
1. Owen Prater (RHS) – 53.28 seconds
800 m
1. Grant Bailey (RHS) – 2:13.66, 2. Leandro Javier (RHS) – 2:22.14
1,600 m
1. Leandro Javier (RHS) – 5:11.19
3,200 m
1. Reece Johnson (RHS) – 11:51.83
110 m hurdles
1. Harrison Dunwoody (RHS) – 16.77 seconds, 2. Clarence Garrett (RHS) – 18.20
300 m hurdles
1. Clarence Garrett (RHS) – 45.58 seconds
4 x 100 m relay
1. Rochester (Spencer Backus, Maddox Jewell, Jabez Yarber, Harrison Dunwoody) – 46.31 seconds, DQ. Rochester (Kale Shotts, Ethan Bailey, Wade Bowers, Hunter Kamp)
4 x 400 m relay
1. Rochester (Owen Prater, Harrison Dunwoody, Jabez Yarber, Grant Bailey) – 3:53.65, 3. Rochester (Clarence Garrett, Bryce Baugher, Maddox Jewell, Jonas Kiser) – 4:02.14, 4. Rochester (Camdyn Furnivall, Lincoln Holder, Leandro Javier, Reece Johnson) – 4:16.75, 5. Rochester (Ethan Bailey, Grayson Miller, Derek Wortley, Brady Gamble) – 4:23.06
4 x 800 m relay
1. Rochester (Reece Johnson, Grant Bailey, Leandro Javier, Camdyn Furnivall) – 9:18.01
Long jump
1. Maddox Jewell (RHS) – 18-3, 2. Preston Luhnow (RHS) – 18-1 ½, 3. Bryce Baugher (RHS) – 17-11
High jump
1. McGuigan (JG) – 5-4, 2. Clarence Garrett (RHS) – 5-2, 3. Preston Luhnow (RHS) – 5-2
Discus
1. Mason Hisey (RHS) – 136-9, 2. Liam Pinder (RHS) – 122-10
Shot put
1. Xavier Vance (RHS) – 46-4, 3. Tyler Reese (RHS) – 39-7
Pole vault
1. Gage Zimpelman (RHS) – 10-0, 2. Grayson Miller (RHS) – 7-6
