Steubenville’s girls track team is in the midst of putting together a memorable run.
First the team finished third in the district meet during a three-way battle for first with eventual champion John Glenn and St. Clairsville for the top spots.
Eight athletes qualified for the regional meet from that effort, and all but three of the girls competing in Chillicothe were freshmen.
But neither age, non-ideal weather conditions, nor even sub-PR times prevented the Big Red girls from making a show of it at Southeastern’s oval.
Steubenville received some key performances in head-to-head battles with Morgan and held off the Raiders to claim their first regional championship since 2015, 60-48.
“Morgan has a great team, and our kids came in with a great mentality and were ready to compete,” Steubenville head coach Andy Kidwell said.
Sabria Jones set the tone when she refused to be denied in the long jump.
The freshman came into the regional with the top PR this season at 17-5½, but after five rounds of jumping, she was sitting in eighth place. Seeded highest, she was the last to jump. Unfazed by the pressure, she ripped off a lead of 17-3¼.
It wasn’t her PR, but it did give her the regional title and six more points than Morgan sophomore Odessa Smith, who finished fifth.
“She battled and competed all day,” Kidwell said of Jones. “She wasn’t in a position to advance going into her last jump, but qualifying for states was one of her goals, and she stepped up and came out on top.
“She did a great job.”
Jones was a dual regional winner, anchoring Big Red’s 4×200 team along with fellow frosh Madalyn Criss, sophomore Mya Stackhouse, and Madison Beadling, the lone senior still left at the regional meet.
Jones qualified in both the 100 and 200, finishing third and fourth respectively. She entered the races with the top-seeded time, so she’ll be looking to improve those marks in Pickerington.
Senior Comes Up Big
In addition to aiding the winning 4×200 team, Beadling qualified for the state meet in the 300 hurdles. In fact, she held off Morgan’s Smith, the top seed coming in. Beadling clocked a 46.42, a one-hundredth of a second off her PR team of 46.41, which she ran earlier in the week during her prelim heat.
Beadling is peaking at the right time. Not bad for an athlete who, prior to this season, had never run the 300 hurdles. Her bread-and-butter was the 400, both individually and in the 4×400.
“Madison just recently started running the 300 hurdles, and she’s done a great job working with our hurdle coaches and getting in extra work whenever she can,” Kidwell said.
“She came to us right around the OVAC meet and said, ‘Hey, can I do this?’”
Kidwell and his assistants gave her the okay but had a few reservations. But on her own, Beadling went to Big Red’s oval on a Saturday, filmed and timed herself running the 300 lows and showed the results to Kidwell.
Point taken young lady. Kidwell signaled the all-clear, and Beadling now finds herself running at the state meet as a regional champ.
State Prospects
Thanks to both quality qualifying times coming in, and some good draws in heat assignments, Big Red has the potential to pick up some points—and some medals—by week’s end.
Steubenville has never won a girls’ state championship in track, but it has finished runner-up twice, the last coming in 2016.
“Our coaches talked and obviously, we’re pretty happy that we got some many individuals and relays still competing at the state meet,” Kidwell said. “Looking at the heat assignments and lane assignments, we feel we have a pretty good draw as far as that goes.
“If we go out and compete, hopefully we can make a run of it come Saturday.”
Points will be scored. Medals can be won. In addition to Beadling and Jones, the 4×200 team will be joined by the 4×100 relay team of Stackhouse, Criss, plus fellow frosh Gia Bowman and Aniyah Warner.
Big Red may even pull off a state champion. Jones is certainly capable in the long jump. She comes in with the third best mark in long jump. Scott junior Clare Logan owns the best jump at 17-7.
But it’s in the shot put where Big Red has the best chance of bringing back a gold medalist.
Amya Livingston was dominant during the indoor season, and it’s carried over to the spring.
The junior won the OVAC championship, followed by the district and regional.
She owns the top throw coming into the state meet at 44-0½. She was a bit off the mark at the regional meet, winning with a throw of 41-10.
Laurel’s Margaret Jones and Heath’s Kennedy Bailey have both PR’d with distances longer than 42 feet. Livingston is definitely the favorite, but she’ll need her best to bring home the gold.
She finished fifth in the regional in the discus, just missing out on qualifying in two events. That should allow her to hyper focus on her unquestioned best event.
“It’s been a great year for her, but (the regional) was one of those days where even her shot wasn’t where she wanted it to be,” Kidwell said. “She’s a very driven kid, and she’ll put in the time and work with her throwing coaches to get it corrected.
“She’s been throwing well, and I think this will make her more focused.”
Kidwell knows the kind of pressure his athletes are under. While this is his first year as Big Red’s track coach, he served for more than a decade as an assistant with Wheeling University’s successful program.
Prior to that, he finished No. 11 in Division II for the cardinals his senior season in the hammer throw. He’s also tasted Ohio state meet competition, finishing seventh in the discus.
This is his first chance to coach at the state meet, but likely not the last.
The girls’ program is loaded with talented underclassmen. It made it this far without its best distance runner, who missed the season after suffering an injury during soccer.
Numbers were even down a little this season (only 13 on the girls’ team), but with the talent coming back, plus coming up from another successful season for Harding Middle, the future looks bright for the Crimson & Black on the oval.
“At the regional, we only had two seniors total, one boy and one girl,” Kidwell said. “We bring a whole bunch of that core back, and hopefully we can continue the success that these kids are having.
“It’s a whole lot of fun coaching them too, and hopefully that success carries over and attracts even more to come out.”
