Rathburn wins crown

Alex Blosser became the first Southern athlete in 11 years to qualify for the state meet.
By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
NAVARRE -- Western Reserve shot putter Alex Rathburn wasn't too happy with her performance at the start of Wednesday's Division III regional meet at Fairless High.
"It was horrible," she said.
But, thanks to a little help from a familiar face, she got straightened out for the finals.
After her first three throws, Nick Panezich (who, you might remember, won two state titles in the event for Springfield and now throws at the University of Tennessee) walked over to Rathburn and said, "What's the deal? You've gotta get yourself together."
"I got really pumped and got my adrenaline going," said Rathburn,who won the regional title last year in the event. "In my warmups, it was crazy. I was throwing like 44 feet. Of course, I was fouling, but still ....
"I took a little off in finals and I threw good."
Rathburn topped her career-best with a throw of 41-6 -- plenty good enough to repeat as champion -- which she attributed to good competition, something she didn't have at last week's district meet.
"That was the difference," said Rathburn, whose previous best throw was 41-13/4. "I had fun and I had someone pushing me. The only thing I said was, 'I own this ring.' "
Even though Springfield held a Div. III district last week, Rathburn and the Blue Devils competed at Creston Norwayne, whose facilities were, ahem, not the best.
"Oh, it was a really nice place," Rathburn said, shaking her head. "Nothing but mud and bad weather and nobody pushing me. It was a great district, let me tell you."
Rathburn finished fourth in the shot at last year's state meet and she'll likely enter this year's meet with the third-best throw.
"I'm still shooting for top three this year," she said. "And next year, [defending champion] Stacey Wannemacher [of Ottoville] will be gone, so I'll go for first."
Moving on
Mineral Ridge senior Megan White, who won the district title in the shot at Springfield last week, finished third in the event.
The top four in each event qualify for next weekend's state meet at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in Columbus.
Warren JFK placed second and Maplewood was fourth in the girls 4x800 relay, while Lordstown (last year's state champs in the event) finished second and McDonald was third in the boys 4x800. Lordstown senior Ashley Kellar placed third in the high jump.
Rare qualifier
While most regional qualifiers entered this season with dreams of Columbus, Southern senior Alex Blosser wasn't sure what to expect. It was his first season competing in the long jump and he was jumping about 17 feet in practice, which is about 3 feet shy of what was needed to qualify for the state meet.
But in his first meet of the year, at East Palestine, he jumped 19 feet to place first. Then he won his next four meets.
Clearly, something good was happening. And on Wednesday, that success continued. Blosser finished fourth in the event, becoming the first Southern athlete to advance to the state meet since Jeremy Athey did it 11 years ago.
For those keeping track, Blosser was in first grade 11 years ago.
"I'm so happy, words are spitting out of my mouth," he said. "I don't worry about how long it's been. I knew what I had to do."
Blosser's main goal next week?
"Try hard," he said. "If you try hard and work hard, you'll go places."
scalzo@vindy.com