Hudson Williams, Joey Francis lead Chillicothe area athletes at state track and field meet

COLUMBUS ― Hudson Williams was doing everything to keep himself centered.

The Zane Trace sophomore knew how the OHSAA state track and field meet was supposed to go. He'd been there in 2024 before as a freshman, where he placed 14th overall. It wasn't the result he wanted.

But that was last year, when the state meet was hosted in Dayton and Williams was still learning the ropes of high school track. The next year of preparation was spent chasing after a higher finish, even a podium spot if he could manage. Over the past year, he'd come into his own. He became calm, self-assured and capable of competing with the best pole vaulters in the state.

"I was just trying to say as confident as I could coming into it," Williams said.

The results sure showed his progress. Williams took home a silver medal for the Pioneers after tying for second place in the Division II pole vault on Friday, June 6 with a height of 14-10.

Crowds never scared Williams much. The sheer number of people crowded into Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium caught him off guard, but it fueled him if anything. Williams went through his normal routine. He stretched, took out his poles, sat for a while and then went around conversing with his competition as the event got underway. Some of them he recognized from his indoor track season.

His start didn't worry him. He passed on the first three heights before clearing 14-0 on his first attempt. 14-6 and 14-10 came just as easily.

"I just tried to stay confident, just trying to get the bars on the first attempt," Williams said. "Because at these big meets, honestly it helps some more than anything. The third-place finisher got the same height as me, but the height before he missed and he had a couple misses at other heights too, which can screw you in the end."

Williams did miss out on a gold medal finish ― New Richmond's Grant Harrison won the Division II medal with a height of 16-7. The jump in performance from last year to now is something he's taken into account. He'll have time to work at his height. After all, there's another year until the next state meet.

His next goal? Clearing five meters. And a gold medal, of course.

"It builds my confidence up a little bit," Williams said. "I want to win it next year, obviously, but doing indoor and stuff this year is definitely going to help towards higher heights and stuff for next year. I want to get every meet over 15 (feet), but next year I'm hoping to get 16-5, which is five meters."

Francis leads Division III with bronze medal

Adena and Southeastern both sent competitors to the Division III meet. Joey Francis took the top honors for the Warriors after placing third in the boys long jump Friday. Francis hit 21-5.50 ― his best jump of the day ― on his second attempt and was in the running for second place until Africentric's Kiyaun Sherman hit a 21-7.75 on his fifth jump.

Katie Burns placed eighth in the girls high jump on Friday after clearing 5-2 on her first attempt. Vanessa Conley placed 11th in the girls 1600-meter run on Saturday with a time of 5:28.37.

Rowan Ruckel brought home hardware for the Panthers as well. Ruckel placed eighth in the girls shot put after hitting her best throw of 39-0.

Division I and II competitors round out weekend

While Williams was the Pioneers' lone medalist at the state meet, he wasn't their only competitor. Zane Trace's boys 4x200 relay team of Aaden Gigley, Aaden Dunn, Levi Marshall and Peyton Dotson took part in the preliminaries on Friday, placing 16th.

Unioto's Levi Beam also joined Williams in the Division II boys pole vault. Beam cleared a height of 14-0 and secured a tie for 10th place.

In Division I, Chillicothe's Jayden Beverly competed in the boys' 800-meter run. Beverly completed his run in 1:53.82, good enough to earn him 11th place in the field of 18 runners. The Division II boys' 800 was highlighted by Westfall's Josh Trapp, who placed 12th overall with a final time of 2:01.27.

Trapp also took part in the 4x400 relay alongside Brody Williams, Quinn Eberly and Tyler Yates. The group placed 13th overall in the preliminary race with a final time of 3:26.48.

Waverly's Paige O'Bryant was the area's lone girls representative in Division II, following her qualification in the 200-meter dash and the long jump. The junior placed eighth in long jump with a best jump of 16-9.75 to earn a state medal and placed 10th in the 200-meter dash preliminaries with a time of 25.23.

This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: Williams, Francis lead Chillicothe athletes at OHSAA track and field meet