Ben Moody

State champ in two events; record-setter

After three years of trying — and failing — to persuade his coaches to let him run the 100-meter dash, Lakeview senior Ben Moody finally got his chance this spring.

A right leg injury temporarily kept him from running the 110-meter hurdles, so after clocking a blazing 10.8 in the 100 at the team’s first meet, his coaches decided to let him run both.

“They always said it was too tough,” Moody said of doubling up on the events, which are run back-to-back. “They said nobody can do that and be good at both.”

At first, he thought they were right.

“The very first time I did it, I got done with the 100 and I was breathing so hard, I had no idea what I had gotten into,” he said.

But he adjusted, winning Division II district and regional titles in the 110s, then finishing second in the 100 at the regional by one-hundredth of a second.

The night before the state finals, he psyched himself up by telling himself it was his last meet and he needed to give it his all.

“I said, ‘If I can walk without hobbling afterward, then I didn’t try hard enough.’”

Moody won the hurdles with ease. Less than 10 minutes later, he leaned at the finish line to win the 100 to become the first area runner to win both events at the state meet since Warren JFK’s Darrick Trimble in 1994.

Moody credits his training at Competitive Edge in Boardman for his growth as a track athlete. But his future is in football. He’s headed to Cornell University next fall, where he plans to major in either biology/pre-med or psychology.

“Track was my fun sport,” said Moody, who said Lakeview football coach and former track coach Tom Pavlansky encouraged him to run track for the competitive benefits. “But I love football. I don’t think there’s any greater sport and I’d like to play that as long as possible.”