ONTARIO, Ohio — He is a relative newcomer to the sport, but a late start hasn’t grounded Galion high jumper Colton Moore.
A senior who started jumping last spring, Moore broke the school record with a leap of 6 feet, 5.25 inches at the Ontario Relays on Thursday at Ontario High School.
“Today is probably about the warmest day we’ve had all year and I was just feeling good,” said Moore, whose previous best was 6-4. “Breaking the record means a lot to me. It has been my goal all year. Since I’ve accomplished that, my next goal is to make it to state.”
Galion coach Todd Roston wouldn’t be surprised to see Moore make a trip to Columbus in June. Moore qualified for the regional meet last spring.
“I don’t know what his ceiling is,” Roston said. “He loves to high jump and he is always working at it. He’s like a gym rat. He improves every day.”
Team Title: Moore’s record-setting effort helped the Tigers win the boys team title in the six-team event. Gallon piled up 128 points, ahead of runner-up Clear Fork (112), Shelby (110), Ontario (109), Madison (92) and Marion Harding (63).
Ontario won the girls crown with 142 points. Shelby (130) was second, while Clear Fork (117) was third. Gallon (106), Madison (72) and Harding (49) rounded out the field.
“I thought we could compete here,” Roston said. “It was a matter of getting our kids ready to go. We were dealing with some injuries, so we had to make some last-minute substitutions.”
Record-Setters: Moore wasn’t the only one rewriting Galion history Thursday. Shot putter Dani Court broke the school record with a throw of 125-1.5. Court teamed with Briana Streib (109-10.5) and Kerrigan Winbigler (97-3) to break the meet record of 310-11 (set by Shelby in 2005) with a combined distance of 332-3.
The Galion girls high jump crew of Marisa Gwinner (5-3), Taylor Valentine (5-1) and Kailey Amos (4-6) combined for a height of 14-10, breaking the former meet mark of 14-4 set by Clear Fork in 2008. Gwinner (15-9) teamed with Sydney Hunt (16-1.75) and Jalyn Oswald (15-0) to win the long jump relay. The trio’s combined distance of 46-10.75 topped the former record of 45-9.5 by Marion Harding in 2009.
“We knew we would be strong in the field events on the girls side,” Roston said. “We’ve got to get better on the track.”
The Clear Fork boys team of Trevon Trammel (20-1.5), C.J. Shinabarker (19-4.5) and Dylan Thompson (18-3.5) broke the meet record in the long jump relay with a combined distance of 57-9.5. The former mark was set of 57-1.75 was set by Ontario in 2010.
Busy Week: Galion, Ontario, Madison and Shelby will all be in action Saturday at the annual Mehock Relays at Malabar Middle School.
“We like to use the Mehock as a measuring stick,” Roston said. “We go to see how we stack up.”
