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Lakeview sprinter sends message
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Lauren Schattinger of Lakeview wins the girls 100 meter dash Saturday afternoon in Ravenna.
By Joe Scalzo
RAVENNA
The first thing you notice about Lakeview junior Lauren Schattinger is that she doesn’t look like an elite sprinter.
A pole vaulter, maybe. Or a two-miler. Or a tall rabbit. But a sprinter? No way. Too small.
She’s the answer to the trivia question, “What happens when a talented gymnast devotes herself to track year round?”
She’s also the answer to the question, “Which girl won Division II regional titles in the 100- and 200-meter dashes on Saturday?”
“I shocked myself,” Schattinger said. “I wanted to lay it all out there today. Going into state, I wanted to send a message and put my best times out there and show everybody what I’m really made of.”
Message sent. Among Mahoning Valley athletes, her performance was the best on a day filled with good ones. It’s the culmination of a year’s worth of work, on and off the track.
“I give up a lot as a high school student for this sport,” said Schattinger, who finished in the top five in both events at last year’s state meet. “All the time, my friends are like, ‘Let’s do this, let’s do that.’ And I have to say, ‘Oh, I’m training.’
“I lose a lot, but on days like this, there is nothing I’d rather be doing. That’s what changes it all.”
Schattinger’s biggest jump over the past year has been in the 100, which is why it’s become her favorite event.
“I struggled with it from seventh grade to this year because I didn’t have the strength to run a good 100,” she said. “It’s really coming along. I’ve always been a muscular girl and I always do a lot of training in the offseason but I think my body was just ready to gain muscle.”
After winning the 100, she pumped her fist and then hugged Liberty senior Kia Butler, who earned her first state berth by finishing fourth in the event. (The top four advance to Columbus.)
Minutes later, Butler was the one celebrating a victory, raising the baton as she anchored the winning 4x100 relay.
“I was very, very confident,” Butler said. “I came into this meet prepared and ready and our 4x100, I knew we were going to get first.”
Butler’s performance was particularly sweet considering she has twice finished fifth in a regional event — missing out on fourth by five-hundredths of a second in the 4x100 two years ago — and finished in the top six in at least one event as a freshman, sophomore and junior.
“I was so happy, I started crying and everything,” Butler said. “I’ve been doing this for four years and I finally made it.”
Newton Falls senior Jen Bjelac was the only other area girl to win an individual event Saturday, capturing the long jump title to help the Tigers finish an area-best seventh in the standings.
On the boys side, Salem’s Mike King (shot put) and Niles’ 4x100 relay joined Girard’s Jamal McClendon (110 hurdles) and Nate Bucci (high jump) all won events. McClendon earned his first state berth by winning the high hurdles one year after finishing 10th in the event at regionals.
McClendon went to the state meet anyway — as a spectator — and vowed he wouldn’t spend 2011 watching from the bleachers.
“It created a hunger and made me want to go out there and get it,” he said of watching the state meet. “I saw what I needed to fix, I practiced a lot harder, I started [training] earlier in the year and came out and did it.”
At 5-foot-6, McClendon doesn’t have the prototypical size of a high hurdler but his burst more than makes up for his short legs.
“People do get surprised [when they see me],” he said, “They’ll ask me, ‘How can you be that short and get over those hurdles so fast?’
“It’s just a fun event and it came easily to me. I just run my race and focus on what’s in front of me.”