Canfield’s Piver makes state track debut

June 2, 2019 at 12:05a.m.

Freshman becomes school’s first seated athlete at state meet

COLUMBUS

Cody Piver has added another sport to his portfolio to take him to the next level.

On Saturday, the Canfield freshman became his school’s first seated athlete at the OHSAA State Track and Field Championships. Last year, Jake Hostetler competed for the Cardinals, but did not make state and an injury this year left him unable to compete this spring.

Piver qualified for the seated 100-meter dash and while he finished in 15th place, it builds up his strength in his real love: the martial arts.

“This is the next step, you know what I mean?” Piver said. “I’m black-belt training right now so I have to have that [personal-best time of 29 seconds] and under for the 100-meter. I really wish I could have done better right now.”

Piver was born three months premature and suffered a Grade IV brain hemorrhage that left him with epilepsy and cerebral palsy. Nonetheless, he’s been able find success in Taekwondo, winning a national title in 2017 and a state title in 2018 while competing for Junior Taekwondo in Boardman.

He said he was used to crowds because of Taekwondo, but the events’ difficulty showed there’s still a lot of room to improve.

“There was some anxiety from looking around and say, ‘Oh crap, I’m going against the fastest guys in the sport,’” Piver said.

It wasn’t long before he made friends in his new sport.

“My friend [Boardman seated athlete Micah Beckwith], I look up to him. Even though he’s a competitor, he’s a good kid,” Piver said.

Beckwith returned to Columbus as a four-event qualifier for the second year in a row, but his sophomore campaign didn’t meet his expectations.

“I didn’t do as well as I wanted to, but I still have two more years,” Beckwith said.

Beckwith took eighth in both the seated 100 and seated 400. Last year, he had three medals. He raced Piver a few times this season and saw his times drop by 20 seconds over the course of the spring.

“It was really cool to see him make it out here,” Beckwith said.