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Grad day decisions pay off with titles for Bjelac, Tolich
By Joe Scalzo
COLUMBUS
As she was waiting to stand atop the podium following the final event of her high school career, Newton Falls senior long jumper Jen Bjelac couldn’t stop wiping her eyes.
“I’ve got sand all over my face,” she said, laughing. “It’s everywhere — up my nose, everywhere.”
Minutes later, she was wiping away something else.
After winning a regional title in the event last week, Bjelac, Newton Falls’ student body president and one of four valedictorians, had a decision to make: Attend graduation or compete in Columbus.
“It was kind of difficult,” she said. “But since I had a chance to win state, that helped me decide.”
Good decision. Bjelac became just the second Tiger to win a state title, leaping a career-best 18 feet, 31/2 inches to capture the Division II title. As she stood on the podium, her principal, John Crowder, gave a teary-eyed Bjelac her diploma.
That scenario repeated itself a few hours later, as Fitch senior Ali Tolich received her diploma after winning the Division I discus title for the second straight year. She clinched the state title with a toss of 145-6 on her first attempt of the finals, then bested it with a season-best 157-2 on her final throw.
“The last one, I was just thinking, ‘Just do it,’” she said. “I wasn’t thinking about anything else and it happened.”
Tolich was too amped up to throw well in the preliminaries — “I really just wanted to go out there and destroy it and that doesn’t work for me at all,” she said — but used the break before finals to eat a snack and relax.
“I knew that in discus, if I just came out and threw how I know how to throw, I’d be fine,” she said.
The shot didn’t go as well. After winning the shot last year, Tolich fouled on two of her three throws and failed to make it to the finals.
“I’m definitely salty about that,” said Tolich, who will throw at Ashland next year. “It was just a bad day.
“Fortunately, I have four more years to throw the shot.”
Bjelac, meanwhile, was able to complete a dream that started three years ago. She qualified for the state meet in 2008 — her teammate, KaiCee Kubicina won the discus that year — but missed her sophomore track season after tearing an ACL during basketball season. She eventually had two surgeries and returned her junior year, qualifying for the regional meet last year, then winning a regional title last week.
“There was some down times so it was great to make it back,” said Bjelac, who pre-recorded her graduation speech so it could be shown in her absence. “It feels really good to be the last person standing.”