Track and Field: Wayne boys seeking to keep grip on state success

Apr. 12—The Wayne High School track and field team went on a spring break trip to South Carolina. There wasn't much relaxing with the Warriors competing at the Myrtle Beach Run Invitational from April 2-4.

The boys team won the team championship by 1.5 points over local power Dorman, national standout Archbishop Carroll of Washington, D.C., and more than 50 other schools from Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, New York, Virginia and Kentucky which took part.

"We're competing against teams that have had a month of meets and they're obviously ahead of us when it comes to performance," Wayne head coach Mike Fernandez said. "...Fortunately for us, our kids are just a few weeks from the indoor state meet."

The group is proving the success they have earned is no fluke.

Wayne currently has a stranglehold on big school team championships in Ohio. The Warriors are the reigning OHSAA Division I boys state team champions for outdoors — the third in school history in first since 2000 — and won its second consecutive indoor team title in March.

"I think every year we go into the season thinking we can make it to Columbus and do a run," Fernandez said. "The majority of our kids are back, we obviously lost our big gun, but I think this is driving our kids to prove that we can still be successful and in the top two and top three at every meet.

"For the kids we do have coming back and the new kids that are stepping up as well, it's that cliché where you set that bar pretty high. I think the athletes, no matter what year it is, they want to maintain that success that we've been accustomed to for the last how many years."

The core of the current boys group won a middle school championship as well. Fernandez said he and his staff were watching them come up and felt by the time they reached high school, it would be a matter of keeping their focus to get their best versions while encouraging them to pursue multiple other sports.

So far, so good. And they're off to another good start this spring.

At the Myrtle Beach event, Key'Shawn Garrett won the 200 meters with a headwind-adjusted time of 21.13 seconds. Keng Martin placed second in the 110 meter hurdles, as did Greyson Merris in the pole vault and Garrett in the triple jump.

Garrett, who has signed to run track for the Cincinnati Bearcats next year, and Martin were part of the winning relay teams at the outdoor championships a year ago and headline this year's group of boys runners attempting to maintain the standard being set season after season.

The duo were joined by Semarion Sroufe and Derrick Stinnett in winning the sprint medley relay 800 meters. Ryder Penrod replaced Stinnett with the group as the champions of the 800 relay, and the runners-up in the 400 relay.

Garrett is the school record holder in the 200 meters and Fernandez believes Martin is setting up to be an accomplished force in multiple hurdle events.

"When you got a core two kids like that (it) can kind of set the tone for everything, the other kids want to step up as well," Fernandez said. "...It's not just those two as there's about five to 10 kids that can make a real difference that will probably give themselves some type of name or recognition this year as the season progresses."

The boys didn't have all the fun on the trip. For the girls team, Gabrielle Gibson won the long jump relay with a distance of 4.40 meters, and had Nawfel Moustapha, Ciomara Perez, Payton Miller and Grace Manley captured the 3,200 relay for freshman and sophomores.

Wayne hosted its relays event on Tuesday, capturing the team title. The practice and preparation meets over the next few weeks sets the stage for the two-day Wayne Invite on April 29-30.

Fernandez said the meet is set up to mimic a state championships feel with representatives from close to 90 schools taking part and provides a preview for the challenges coming on the path to state in Columbus, which will have its own uncertainty as Division I moves to a "super regional" meet format instead of districts leading into regionals.

"People say all the time to me, you just make it look so easy," Fernandez said. "I just want to be sure for everybody, it's not easy. These kids work hard, and I got great assistant coaches that help us do what we're doing, but it's neat to see the successes the kids have because I see it here at the track and I know what these kids are about."