ASHLAND – Sadie Walter has the chance to make what is unquestionably one of the most ironic weekends in Ashland High School sports history iconic.
Last week in her Division II regional track performance at Lexington, the star junior swept titles in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles, catapulting her into this week’s state championships as a No. 2 seed in both events.
Walter also qualified to Columbus in the 100-meter dash (seeded 12th).
So what’s the potential iconic part?
She could be Ashland’s first state champion in track and field since 2002, when Beth Mallory won both the shot put and discus crowns.
And the ironic part?
Walter’s preliminary and finals runs will take place exactly 40 years to the days that her mom and head coach, Gail Walter, ran her way to a state title as part of the AHS 4×100 relay (June 6 and 7, 1986).
Despite that fortuitous reality, the matriarch in the equation prefers to redirect the focus to her daughter on the track this weekend at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.
“Sadie’s her own person doing her own thing,” Gail said. “She’s surpassed anything her parents ever did. … I didn’t ever think of (it being exactly 40 years later), but it’s definitely cool.”
That 1986 relay – which also consisted of Mary Steele, Jenny Glaze and Kim Carmen – still stands as the only state title in a running event for the AHS girls program.
It came in just the 12th annual state meet when the Arrows still competed in Class AAA, narrowly squeaking past a quartet from Toledo Start at the finish line, 48.90-49.00.
This week marks the 51st annual state meet.
Four decades may have passed, but it appears time couldn’t diminish the talent in the Walter family.
Sadie is the only Arrow other than Jan Hoverstock in 1991 (100, 200, long jump) and Lyndsey Karcher in 2019 (seated 100, 400 and 800) to qualify to state in three individual events in the same year.
Asked if she had taken some time to consider her regional exploits – gold in the 100 hurdles (school-record 14.55) and 300 hurdles (44.33) and fifth in the 100 (12.44) – Walter couldn’t lie.
“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it,” she said with a smile and a nod. “I think just knowing where I was seeded coming into regionals and knowing what I could do to get to state, I was just hoping to get there in all the events I was supposed to.
“I think I still have room to grow, but it’s definitely just a little bit at a time,” she added. “I do feel like I’m in a good spot going into this weekend.”
The 5-foot-10 Walter’s skills have been refined on the track by Ashland hurdles coach Jason Goings, a former hurdler at Ashland University who has been working with hurdlers at AHS for a decade now.
He first met Walter when she was on the bubble of making the state meet in the 100 hurdles in eighth grade. Walter took what she learned in a few sessions from Goings and went from being seeded in the mid-20s in the event to placing eighth.
“I hate to use the term, but Sadie is an animal,” Goings said. “She’s obviously a gifted athlete, but her mental focus sets her apart; she hones in and just wants to be great.
“She’s just really easy to coach and she has that ‘dog mentality.’ It’s hard to describe, but she has it.”
She’s just really easy to coach and she has that ‘dog mentality.’ It’s hard to describe, but she has it.
ashland hurdles coach jason goings on sadie walter
Even with all that said, Walter’s triple-qualification to Columbus this weekend would have seemed impossible a year ago.
She spent much of her sophomore season riding a roller coaster of pain due to a serious lower-back injury. There were highs and lows, but it eventually led to Walter getting her back aligned and going through six weeks of physical therapy once the 2025 season ended.
“It was very off and on,” Walter said. “I could suck it up in some meets and then I would wake up the next day and it would hurt so bad and I wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
She pushed herself to finish the season after some time off in the middle of the schedule, sometimes competing in one or two events before being forced to scratch from races.
At the OCC Championships last spring, Walter finished second to her then-senior sister, Vivian Walter, in the 100 hurdles. But when her 100-meter race came along, she was in too much pain to finish even close to full strength.
“She fought to try to get through that back injury,” Goings said. “There were times when she would finish running and she would just be in tears, to the point where we knew we had to shut her down.”
It left some lingering, back-of-the-mind concern for Walter and her coaches entering 2026. But she had a healthy year on the volleyball court last fall (second-team All-OCC, co-team MVP) and entered this spring feeling like she had strengthened her body enough and had grown used to the workload enough that things would be improved.
During an early-season meet in 30-degree weather at Massillon, Walter ran a 15.7 in the 100 hurdles and a 12.7 in the 100.
Coach Walter said that performance allowed her to breathe a sigh of relief and believe 2026 would be better.
“I ran better than I thought I would with the weather, so that was good to see,” Sadie said. “I feel like that was a confidence-booster going into the season.”
Often this year, Sadie checked in and chatted with her sister, Vivian, now competing at Ashland University.
As a senior for the Arrows last season, the elder Walter sister was named the OCC’s Girls Combined Athlete of the Year. She narrowly missed out on making state in the 100 hurdles (fifth in 15.09 at regionals) and the pole vault (seventh with a school-record 11-foot clearance).
This spring at AU, she was the 100 hurdles runner-up in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Outdoor Championships (14.27).
“It definitely benefits me (having so much track talent in the family),” Sadie said. “Viv can always correct me on videos or show me videos (to improve things), and it’s the same thing with my mom.
“I did a workout with Viv during indoor track and she was whooping my butt.”
With her monster junior campaign now culminating at the state meet, it’s Sadie who has found her stride.
She swept the hurdle crowns at the prestigious Mehock Relays and was named OCC Runner of the Year after breaking three meet records there.
Walter won conference gold in both the 100 (12.31) and 300 hurdles (44.48), and her 14.83 in the 100 hurdles also would have been a new record had Wooster’s Teagan Hafner not also broken the previous standard for first place (14.70).
At her district meet, Walter piled up titles in those same three events before hogging the hurdling gold medals at last week’s regional.
“The nice thing about Sadie is that she’s been a very consistent performer and that works in her favor because she mentally doesn’t change the way she approaches things,” coach Walter said. “Whether it’s raining and windy or it’s warm and 75, she goes into everything with the same consistent approach and she’s yielded very consistent performances.”
Walter also took fifth at regionals in the 100 and was part of a 4×100 relay with Alyssa Sampson, Oaklynn Burns and Frankie Rupsis that made the podium in eighth place with a 49.54 – Ashland’s best time in that event since 1987.
For her part, Burns also grabbed a piece of history, advancing to Columbus with a regional title in the long jump. Her measurement of 17 feet, 11.5 inches tied an AHS record set in 1992 by Hoverstock.
“Not everybody’s gonna get to this level,” coach Walter said, “but they sure are putting their best into it and that’s what we’re asking of them – to find the best version of themselves as people and as athletes and to just keep working on that.
“It’s amazing what they’ve been doing as a team to get better like that. … We had so many kids in the regionals and regional finals that I think their standard of excellence, the bar keeps coming up a little bit.”
Walter said she’s started to garner some college interest and likely will begin to explore where that part of her future could lead sometime this summer.
But for now, she’s laser-locked on trying to make those fateful dates on the calendar – June 6 and 7 – even more unforgettable.
“Sadie’s in a real good spot and I like her competitiveness,” Goings said. “I know she’s ranked second in both (hurdling) events, but you line her up against anyone and I’m gonna put my money on Sadie.”
