MANSFIELD — In the case of Mansfield Senior’s Joe Ellis, it took a team to win a state championship.
Ellis, this school year’s final Richland Bank Athlete of the Week, captured the Division I high jump championship Saturday afternoon at Ohio State’s Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. The senior matched his personal best with a leap of 6-feet, 10-inches in a head-to-head showdown with 2016 champ Albert Kalala of Cincinnati Withrow.
While Ellis did the heavy lifting, a crew of trainers and coaches worked tirelessly behind the scenes to get the senior competition ready. Ellis was nursing a nagging ankle injury and woke up Friday to a host of maladies. He was dealing with a migraine headache and asthma-related breathing problems as well as a sore back.
“I felt horrible the whole time,” Ellis said. “I just fought through it.”
He had plenty of help.
“Joe has been through a lot these last few weeks,” Senior High coach Tyree Shine said. “I’d like to thank our trainers. They’ve done a heck of a job.
“They have been at every practice wrapping and taping Joe and getting him through therapy.”
While the training staff took care of his physical ailments, Shine and the coaching staff had plenty of mental work to do Friday night. Ellis failed to reach the finals individually in the 200 meter dash and as a member of Senior High’s 4×100 relay crew.
“He was done mentally,” Shine said.
It looked like all of his physical and mental baggage would catch up with Ellis early in the high jump competition. He missed on his first two attempts at 6-4, passed when the bar was moved to 6-5 and missed on his first two tries at 6-6 and 6-7.
“I was trying to conserve energy until we got to the higher heights,” Ellis said. “I ended up jumping a lot early.”
There were still seven competitors in contention for a state title when the bar was moved to 6-7. Only Ellis and Kalala remained when the bar was raised to 6-8.
“When I saw the other competitors go out, I relaxed a little bit,” Ellis said. “I felt confident after that.”
Both Ellis and Kalala cleared on their first attempt at 6-8 and Ellis put the pressure on Kalala when he cleared on his first try at 6-9.
“When I saw him miss (at 6-9) I thought I must be getting in his head,” Ellis said. “It gave me a lot of confidence.”
When Kalala clipped the bar on his third attempt at 6-9, Ellis immediately grabbed his head in disbelief. After congratulating Kalala, he recognized the Senior High fans standing outside the fence, then had the bar raised to 6-10. Again he missed on his first two tries but, as the public address announcer encouraged the entire stadium to cheer him on, Ellis cleared 6-10 on his final attempt.
“I do better when the crowd gets behind me like that,” Ellis said. “It pushes me a lot. I like that.”
Ellis had the bar raised to 7-feet, but missed on his first two attempts. He retired before taking his third try.
“My ankle started to lock up,” he said.
Ellis’ mother, Cicely Constant, celebrated a birthday on the day her son won a state crown.
She called me and asked, ‘Can you win this for me?’ and I said, ‘Yes, mom,’ ” Ellis said. “This is all for her.
“It feels great to be a state champion. It doesn’t feel real.”
Complete results from the state track and field championships can be found here.
