Crestwood Red Devils’ junior Liv Martini pushed herself to her physical and mental limit this season and finished the year by taking eighth place in 200-meter dash at the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division III state meet last Saturday at The Ohio State University’s Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.
“I am so relieved and so excited,” Martini said. “Last year, I ran the 400-meter dash, and I placed ninth, so it means even more to me this year to finally make podium.”
Martini was a state qualifier for the second straight season but only qualified in the 100 and 200-meter dashes this year, a year removed from qualifying in the 100, 200 and 400-meter dashes at last year’s OHSAA Division II state meet.
After not advancing to the 100-meter dash finals for the second consecutive year, Martini secured seventh place in the 200-meter dash preliminaries on Friday.
Martini ended her junior season by taking eighth place in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.63, marking her first career state placement in her high school career.
“I think it was a lot mental — just telling myself ‘You have to push through it’. I really wanted this,” she added. “Just knowing I wanted to place and get on that podium; it meant a lot to me, and that mentality really got me through.”
It marked the end of an injury-plagued season for Martini, who despite dealing with physical ailments, still persevered to earn her first state medal.
According to her, dealing with injuries had been the theme of the season for a short-handed Crestwood Red Devils girls’ track and field team but like her teammates, she pushed through the pain.
“It was a lot of recovery and just pushing through it. Mentally it was a lot for everyone, but everyone pushed through to the regional meet,” she added.
Having captured her first state placement in her high school career, Martini said that her focus is to make sure her senior season is a memorable one, as she seeks to be a three-event state qualifier next year and has her eyes set on placing high in the 400-meter dash.
In addition to Martini representing the Red Devils as their only state placer, Ravenna Ravens’ senior Mason Scott defied the odds to place sixth in the 300-meter hurdles.
“It feels great,” said Scott. “I knew from the beginning that I could be here. It was just a matter of where and when. I knew I had not had my best race yet and it was coming. It just came at the right time when I needed to.”
Ranked as the slowest time entering the OHSAA Division III state meet, Scott became the first Raven hurdler to become a state placer since former hurdler Pavel Henderson took fifth place in the 110-meter hurdles at the 2023 OHSAA Division II state meet.
On Friday, Scott came in fourth place in the second heat of the preliminaries with a personal best 39.83 seconds, earning the seventh seed for the final race.
Scott said that although he was not favorably ranked to place at the state meet, he knew he had nothing to lose.
On Saturday, the Ravens’ senior overcame a slow start after the first 150-meters and picked up the pace in the final 150-meters to secure sixth place, with a career best 39.03 seconds.
According to Scott, the final 150-meters of the race is where he has done his best work and he proved it by breaking the 25-year school record, previously set by Danny Kendrick in 2001.
“That is where I feel like I shine, is at the end of the race finishing strong,” he added. “So, I am used to powering through that last 100 to 150 meters and just pushing.”
Although Scott was the only Raven to qualify for the state meet this year, he has confidence that his younger teammates will make a deep push next year and represent Ravenna the same way he did.
“All of those guys will be here next year. They will bring more people, I am just looking to pave the way and show them what to do and they are up next,” he added. “It is all about them.”
