Wright stuff: Sprinter breaks Zallow’s mark

May 18, 2019 at 12:05a.m.

Wellsville junior runs 10.64 in 100

NEW MIDDLETOWN

Justin Wright broke his first barrier to being considered the greatest Division III sprinter in the Mahoning Valley.

During Wednesday’s preliminaries and Friday’s finals in the D-III district meet at Springfield, the Wellsville junior broke the meet record for the 100 with a first-place time of 10.64 seconds.

The original record — 10.78 seconds — belonged to current Youngstown State star and Warren JFK graduate Chad Zallow. Wright is just 0.11 seconds back of the real prize — Zallow’s state-record 10.55-second time, a mark he shares with Denver Williams of Cadiz, a former YSU football player.

“It’s been pushing me. I’ve really pushing for that state record,” Wright said. “All in all, I want a state championship regardless of time, but a state record would be nice. I’m definitely chasing his times.”

Like Zallow in 2014, Wright has been drawing interest from YSU and Ohio State for track.

To raise his stock even higher from last year where he was the runner up in the 100 and third in the 200, he’s added high jump and long jump to his resume. He won the high jump with a high of 6 feet, 3 inches and took second in the long jump with a leap of 21-08. He also won the 200 with meet-record time of 21.71.

The guy who beat Wright in the long jump, Crestview’s Dylan Huff, claims part of overtaking a Zallow record. In the boys 4x200 relay, Huff and teammates Ethan Powell, Brandon Yanssens and Jayce Meredith won the 4x200 relay and shattered the meet record from the Eagles’ Chad and Carl Zallow, Zack Watt and Jake Coates with a time of 1:28.26, just over two seconds better than the original time. The same foursome also took the 4x100 relay, beating out a Valley Christian team that returned three of four runners from its state champion 4x200 and runner up 4x100 relay.

“Knowing that they were the state champs last year and we were with them in districts and regionals last year, it felt great to come here and race them again,” said Huff, who took third in the 200.

Winning the long jump on Wednesday may be the most impressive feat for Huff. Springfield played host to six jumpers who were jumping about 22 feet — an excellent mark in high school track. Huff won going 22-02.50. Wright, Columbiana’s Joey Bable and Western Reserve’s Josh Miller filled out the four bids to Massillon Perry, leaving Southern brothers Bradly and Jayce Sloan in the cold despite marks that would put them on a podium in Columbus.

In team scoring, McDonald swept both sides with the girls team’s 128 points dwarfing Mineral Ridge’s 67 in second place. The Blue Devils’ dominance was on display when junior Anna Guerra lapped opponents while winning the 1600 and 3200.

“I use [lapped opponents] to push myself,” Guerra said. “I just see who my next person will be to try and catch them and just keep doing it over and over.”

Crestview’s success in sprints and reigning state champ Dominic Perry repeating as a district champ in the shot put made a for a tough afternoon for the boys team, but the Blue Devils’ distance-running success kept the Rebels at bay with a score of 113 to 91.50.

McDonald senior Zach Gray took fourth in the shot put after previously winning the discus on Wednesday with his best throw coming at 174-47. His personal-best of 182, make him the favorite not just for regionals, but for a state title.

“There is a lot of pressure, but I feel like I need to go out there and do what I need to do,” Gray said. “Hopefully it all falls into place and it’s good.”