Maplewood 4x800 relay wins state title

June 6, 2015 at 12:08a.m.

COLUMBUS

The only thing the Maplewood Rockets lost on Friday was their breakfast.

Leaving everything they had on the track — and, yes, off the track — the Rockets cruised to a Division III state title in the 4x800-meter relay at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium, breaking the school record with a time of 7:49.02.

Anchor Derek Morrison, the only senior on the relay, finished off the 12-second victory by thrusting both arms into the air as he crossed the finish line as teammates Tristan Dahmen, Jake Hall and Allen Sparks erupted in the infield.

It was Maplewood’s first 4x800 title since 2003 and it was just off the state meet record of 7:48.39, set by Yellow Springs in 2007.

“We knew coming in today that we would have some good competition that would push us,” said Morrison, whose relay dropped about 81/2 seconds from last week. “We didn’t know we would have as good a day as we did.”

The Rockets were basically running against history over the final three legs, with one eye on the two-year-old school record of 7:50.83 and another on the state meet record.

“We thought we had an outside shot [at the state record], but we definitely wanted to get the school record,” Hall said. “Coming that close is impressive, especially with not having someone there [pushing them] the whole race. We were just pushing off pure will for two of our runners.”

Sparks seemed to exert the most, ahem, will. Although Friday was National Donut Day, Sparks said, “I only had a bagel and some orange juice.”

“And now I don’t,” he said, laughing.

Maplewood edged Warren JFK by four points for last week’s regional title and those teams are expected to contend for this weekend’s state crown. The Rockets, who won last fall’s state cross country title, won their only state track title in 2000, tying Findlay Liberty-Benton. The Eagles have never won a state track title.

“This is a huge jump-start for where we want to be as a team,” said Dahmen, who won an individual title in cross country and will run the 3200 today. “It sets us up well.”

Maplewood has six more races while JFK has five, with Eagle senior Chad Zallow (110 hurdles, 100, 300 hurdles) and sophomore Jacob Coates (100, 200) poised to pile up as many as 48 points.

The stage is set for another close finish between the teams and it could come down to how well Morrison (who will run the 800 and 1600) and Sparks (the 1600 and 3200) handle two more distance races.

“At the end of the season, it’s really about believing in yourself,” Sparks said. “All the work and the effort is in the first half. The last two weeks are about belief.”