Huron's Anderson, Whiteford relay capture state titles

Apr 02, 2023

Elizabeth Anderson was competing in Division 2.

But it didn't matter because the New Boston Huron senior would have beaten anyone in the state Saturday.

Anderson won the 400 meters during the Division 2 State Championships with a time of :55.38, which was the fastest in the state across all divisions.

This was the second year in a row that Anderson took the gold in the 400 and her time was good enough to set a new personal record broke the state record she set earlier this year.

"It's pretty cool to defend my title from last year, I didn't expect to run a fifty-five which was a new personal record and made it even better," she said.

Anderson took second in the 100 (:12.04) and also finished second in the 200 (:24.65), losing by a razor thin margin of four-one-hundredths of a second.

Huron girls coach Danielle Laboto said it was "wild" how fast Anderson was Saturday and acknowledged it's not common to have the opportunity to coach a girl with her kind of talent.

"It was definitely a privilege to coach her because girls of her caliber don't come along too often," she said. "She works so incredibly hard not just during the season, but she puts in so much work during the off-season too it has just been such an honor to coach her."

Whiteford's boys 1,600 relay team also brought home a state title with a time of 3:27.28 in Division 3. That avenged the relay's loss to Constantine (who finished second but was disqualified) from a week prior.

The Bobcat relay team is made up of seniors Shea Ruddy and Dylan Anderson and juniors Ryin Ruddy and Jacob Iott.

Whiteford head coach Jay Yockey said it was the pinnacle of the day and expressed appreciation for the mental fortitude the team embraced.

"As a coach you know the potential of your guys and when they rise up to the occasion and perform it's a great feeling, they embraced such championship mentality and had such desire to hone their craft all year," he said.

Iott is the unit's anchor and said the team knew it was going to be a close contest, but they had just as good of a shot as anybody.

"We knew we were right up in the mix and it was going to be a tight race, I’m just so proud at how we did and happy to take a state championship back to the school," he said.

Erie Mason's boys 1600 relay team of Landen Nastale, Anderson Kaufman, Jackson Iocoangeli, and Jackson Ansel finished third in the same race behind Whiteford.

Ansel is the anchor for the Eagles relay and also took second in the 800 (1:58.35).

Ansel was in fourth place with about half a lap to go when he made his move for the win but didn't quite make up enough ground in a race that saw the top five finish within two seconds of each other.

Jefferson's Carter McCalister came up just short in Division 2 for each of his distance races taking second place in the 3,200 (9:16.55) and finishing third in the 1,600 (4:15.10).

Each time was good enough for a new personal record and break his own school records set earlier this year.

The 1,600 was a heartbreaker with the top three runners finishing within a little over a second of each other.

McCalister ran his first two laps in 2:11, finishing with a 64-second third lap and a 59-second bell lap.

With half a lap to go the race was up for grabs.

"I was in a good spot with two-hundred meters to go they just had a little bit more than me. That's how a race goes sometimes," he said.

Jefferson boys coach Chad Ludwick said he was proud of McCalister and will miss him a lot.

"He is the best distance runner we’ve ever had—period," he said.

McCalister wasn't the only Jefferson student athlete to bring home hardware.

The girls 3,200 relay team of Vernoica Fitzgerald, Kim Miller, Alyssa Masserant, and Jenna Pilachowski set a school record finishing in 9:32.76 which was good enough for second place.

Ida freshman Julia Hughes finished second in the girls Division 3 low hurdles (:47.56).

Summerfield's Brandon Thompson took third in the boys Division 4 800 (1:58.64).