COLUMBUS — Being the leadoff runner on Galion’s Division II state-championship 4×100 relay team has one disadvantage.
After handing off the baton, Laura McElligott is relegated to the role of spectator. It can be a little unnerving.
“I can’t watch,” McElligott said Saturday afternoon shortly after she and her teammates collected their gold medals. “I get so scared.”
The quartet’s lone senior, McElligott was probably the only person inside Ohio State’s Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium who didn’t have her eyes glued to the home stretch Saturday afternoon as Galion anchor Clair Erlsten and Youngstown Ursuline’s Alexandra Carnathan sped toward the finish line. Erlsten, a junior, held off Carnathan as The Tigers won the event in 48.71 seconds. Ursuline was second in 48.79.
Galion’s foursome, the final Richland Source Athlete(s) of the Week for the 2013-14 school year, had the second fastest qualifying time in the preliminaries. They ran a 49.10 on Friday, behind Ursuline (48.98).
The Tigers had their work cut out for them Saturday as McElligott coiled herself into the starting blocks.
“Our goal was to win,” McElligott said. “We thought it was kind of unreachable but obviously it wasn’t.”
Remarkably, the quartet came together only earlier in the spring. They broke a school record in 49.90 seconds the first time they ran together and shaved fractions of a second off each ensuing race.
The team won a regional title at Lexington a week earlier with a time of 49.24.
“At that point, we had the fastest (state) qualifying time,” Erlsten said. “So we were like, ‘Wow, we can do this.’ ”
“We’ve been together about a month. The only time we got second was in (Friday’s preliminaries),” McElligott said. “We redeemed ourselves.”
Erlsten was especially disappointed after Ursuline took the top qualifying spot for Saturday’s finals.
“We were upset because we were supposed to win our heat and they beat us,” she said. “It took us a second but I knew we still had (Saturday’s) finals.”
The second-place finish in the preliminaries motivated the Tigers. Junior Michaela Slone , who ran the second leg, knew their was room for improvement.
“It got us focused today,” Slone said. “Obviously we brought our ‘A’ game.”
The quartet’s lone sophomore, Sydney Hunt was out for track for the first time this spring. She is an accomplished gymnast, but didn’t know where she would fit in on the oval.
“Actually, there wasn’t much pressure,” said Hunt, who ran the third leg. “We bonded so well together. We’re pretty close.”
That was clear after Erlsten broke the tape Saturday. She and McElligott watched the scoreboard together and when the official results were posted, the celebration was on. The two hugged then finally found Slone and Hunt, sparking an even bigger celebration that was sure to stretch into Saturday night.
“My graduation party is tonight,” McElligott said Saturday. “I wouldn’t want them to miss it.
“It means a lot. We went as far as we could and won state.”
Follow Curt Conrad on Twitter @curtjconrad.
