MANSFIELD, Ohio — Jornell Manns celebrated in style Saturday during the 85th Mansfield Mehock Relays.
The Mansfield Senior junior, who verbally committed to play football at the University of Minnesota on Thursday, struck Mehock gold in the long jump with a personal-record leap of 22 feet, 5 inches — a half inch further than runner-up Andre Welch of East Kentwood.
“This is my second outdoor meet and my first time jumping (outdoors),” Manns said. “I jumped a little indoors but I only jumped 21-6.
“I haven’t been practicing much because of all these (college) visits. I visited Wisconsin and Minnesota last week. I left on Monday and didn’t get back until Thursday.”
Manns helped the Tygers (39 points) to a sixth-place finish in the 31-team boys field. Gahanna Lincoln won the team trophy with 106, followed by East Kentwood (101.5). Cleveland Heights (54) Ashland (47.5) and Watkins Memorial (43) rounded out the top five.
Mansfield Senior’s Joe Ellis defended his Mehock title in the high jump. The senior passed until the bar was at 6-2 and won with a leap of 6-4. Ellis, who cleared 6-10 last week, missed all three of his attempts at 6-6.
“It was just a bad day. I did too much running,” said Ellis, who scratched from the 200 finals. “Still, it feels great to be a two-time Mehock champ.”
Redemption: After taking runner-up in the 300 meter hurdles at last year’s Mehock Relays, Galion’s Colin McCullough moved to the top step of the podium with a winning time of 39.53 seconds. The senior used a strong finishing kick to pass runner-up Gerald Brewer of Watkins Memorial (40.15).
“I’ve done a lot of training for distance, so I was able to use my endurance and push through,” McCullough said. “Down the stretch I believe I got two people. We all went over the first hurdle on the home stretch together.”
Throws Ace: Ashland’s David Amstutz didn’t defend his title in the discus, but the athletic senior didn’t leave disappointed. Amstutz won the shot put competition with a heave of 59 feet and was even more thrilled with his runner-up finish in the discus, where he turned in a personal record throw of 180-4 on his final attempt — seven feet further than his previous best.
“I was just happy with a PR honestly,” Amstutz said. “I fouled my first two (attempts), so I was really nervous I was going to foul my third and not even make the finals.
“I threw 25 feet further today (than last year) and got second, so that’s kind of weird.”
Other Winners: Shelby’s 4×800 relay team of Danny Friebel, Tyler Green, Alexander Moore and Samuel Logan won in 8:07.36.
