MANSFIELD, Ohio — Alaysia Grose’s final Mehock Relays almost ended before they started.
The Mansfield Senior standout suffered a left leg injury during warm-ups and scratched from her individual events, but returned to anchor the Tygers’ winning 4×200 meter relay team on a warm Saturday afternoon at Malabar’s Mehock Field.
Grose was practicing her starts when she collided with a cart used to shuttle hurdles being pushed by a meet official. She suffered a leg injury which forced her out of the 100 and 200 dashes.
“There were so many people and he was trying to find a path (across the track). I didn’t see him until after I hit him,” Grose said. “At first they thought it was a fracture, but they ruled that out.”
Grose had plenty of work to do when she took the baton from Nayasha Franklin. Lima Senior’s Corion McDonald-Gordon held a commanding lead, but Grose quickly closed the gap.
“I said to myself, ‘I’ve got to get her,’ ” said Grose, who was joined on the 4×200 by Franklin, Jakari Brown and Alaya Grose. “I knew everybody else had already run and they were tired and this was my first race.”
Title Defense: Galion junior Marisa Gwinner defended her title in the high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 4 inches.
“I’ve been fighting an injury since indoor, so I went to the chiropractor (Thursday) and it turned out that my hip was out,” Gwinner said. “He adjusted me, so I was really happy to go 5-4.”
Gwinner won an indoor state title with a leap of 5-5.
“I’ve been jumping 5-7 the last couple of weeks,” Gwinner said. “To be jumping here at this time of the year, I couldn’t be happier.”
Hurdle Duel: St. Peter’s Alyssa Wade won the 100 hurdles in 14.33, just .03 ahead of Sylvania Southview’s Lauren Micham.
“I had a really good day,” said Wade, who was second in the 100 dash. “I PR’d in the hurdles and ran a season’s best in the 100 dash. I was really happy with what I did.
“I felt really strong. I’m excited to see what I can do the rest of the season.”
Area Winners: Shelby’s 4×800 relay team of Maddie Heimlich, Kearsten Morrison, Macy Lynch and Makenna Heimlich won in 9:44.94.
Team Standings: Gahanna Lincoln won the team title with 126 points, followed by East Kentwood (72), Lima Senior (59), Watkins Memorial (45) and Shelby (28.5). Mansfield Senior finished seventh with 24 points.
