Another Kreatsoulas earns field honor

Poland senior Juliana Kreatsoulas placed fifth in the Division II girls discus state event and 14th in the shot put — totally different from her expectations.

“I walked in hoping to do better in shot put than discus but I guess it got flipped because I hold my school’s record in shot put,” Kreatsoulas said. “It’s funny to watch it all play out.”

It’s the second year in a row a Kreatsoulas has been named Female Field Athlete of the Year, Juliana’s sister Nicolette, now a member of the Youngstown State track and field team, won the honor last year after finishing second at the state meet in the discus.

“It feels cool to continue that legacy,” Juliana said.

At this year’s state meet, the discus competition was set up for Garrettsville Gafield’s Lauren Jones. Her 160-foot throw in the regional was far beyond any other competitor so pressure wasn’t on for Kreatsoulas. But the shot put was one she felt she could have won.

“Walking into shot put I was like, ‘Oh I can win. I can beat this girl.’” she said. “I was throwing throws in my practices before we got to Columbus that were far enough to win a state meet and just dropped the ball. That’s something I have to accept, but things happen.”

Replays have gone through her head since the 14th place finish, but regrets aren’t.

“You go back and think about all the things you could’ve fixed,” Kreatsoulas said. “But if it wasn’t meant to be it wasn’t meant to be.”

Her performance only serves as motivation now.

“You’re not going to [get a personal record] every meet and you’re not going to win every meet,” Juliana said. “You need something like that sometimes to push you farther.”

What Kreatsoulas has pushed for is a spot on Ohio State’s track team as a preferred walk on. She will be majoring in business administration while throwing for the Buckeyes.

“The OSU coach called me the day after prom and was like, ‘Hi. I’d like to meet you.’ and I was like, ‘Wow. This is real. This is big stuff’ and I kind of had to rise to the occasion.”

— Charles Grove, The Vindicator