TIFFIN, Ohio — Ben Olewiler made his bones as a high jumper, but the Crestview senior is pretty good on the track, too.
Olewiler finished first in the preliminaries of the 400 meter dash at Wednesday’s Division III regional meet at Tiffin. He also ran the opening leg on Crestview’s finals-qualifying 4 x 200 relay and 4 x 400 relay.
The finals for the running events begin at 6 p.m. Friday. The remaining field events finals, including the high jump competition, begin at 5 p.m.
Olewiler, who will high jump at the University of Akron next year, ran a 51.18 in the 400. He joined Trevor Durbin, Christian Durbin and Kiev Mack to finish fifth in 1:32.81 in the 4 x 200. Olewiler and Mack teamed with Dawson LaFever and Garett Dudley to take seven in the 4 x 400 in 3:32.09.
The top eight teams in the preliminaries (top two finishing teams in each heat and the next four fastest times) qualified for Friday’s finals. The top four finishers Friday advance to next week’s state meet.
Olewiler won district titles in the high jump and 400 at last week’s district meet in Bucyrus. Crestview’s 4 x 200 team also captured a district crown. He will be the favorite to win the regional high jump crown after finishing second in the Division III state meet last spring with a leap of 6 feet, 7 inches. He cleared 6-8 at the Mehock Relays earlier this season.
Division I: Mansfield Senior speedster Quez Wellington earned spots in the finals of both the 100 and 200 during qualifying at the Division I Amherst regional Wednesday. Wellington was fifth in the 100 (10.90) and took second inthe 200 (22.04).
Teammate Kaz Sutton secured a spot in the finals of the 110 hurdles, finishing sixth in 15.09. Alaysia Grose earned the eighth and final qualifying spot in the 200 (26.14). Grose teamed with Alysse Wade, Makenna Hawk and Alaya Grose to earn the eighth spot in the 4 x 100 relay in 49.92.
Madison’s Frank Douglas earned the third qualifying spot in the 300 hurdles (39.26).
The Division I finals begin at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
Division II: The Division II Lexington regional begins at 4 p.m. Thursday with the field event. Track qualifying begins at 5 p.m. The finals begin at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
