CHAYA MURRAY Salem 1st, 200

CLAIRE LIPOSKY
Heartland
1st, Discus

MADDOX ROACH
East Liverpool
3rd, 1600

MADOLYN GORBY
Salem
3rd, High Jump

REBECCA GEISS
Heartland
3rd, 3200

LUCAS ADAMS
Salem
4th, Long Jump

LANDON WHEATLEY
Beaver Local
7th, High Jump

LUCAS ADAMS
Salem
8th, High Jump

CLAYTEN KERSEY
Wellsville
8th, Long Jump

REBECCA GEISS
Heartland
6th, 1600

MADDY JONES
Southern Local
8th, Shot Put

MADDY JONES
Southern Local
8th, Shot Put

The Salem girls 400-meter relay team of (from left) Chaya Murray, Karlie Sampson, Abby Knickerbocker and Angie Hoffaker finished fifth in the Division III state track meet in Columbus on Saturday night. (Morning Journal/Ron Firth)

The Salem girls 1600-meter relay team of (from left) Chaya Murray, Karlie Sampson, Laura Hovorka and Abby Knickerbacker finished eighth in the Division III state finals on Saturday night. (Morning Journal/Ron Firth)

The Salem girls 400-meter relay team of (from left) Chaya Murray, Karlie Sampson, Abby Knickerbocker and Angie Hoffaker finished fifth in the Division III state track meet in Columbus on Saturday night. (Morning Journal/Ron Firth)

COLUMBUS — After three school records and a state title, the Salem girls track team didn’t want it to end late Saturday night.

The Quakers hung around taking photos with the Jesse Owens statue in front of the stadium after the 51st annual girls state track and field meet.

“We were in no hurry to get out of there,” Salem girls coach Ted Yuhaniak said. “It was a special, special night.”

The Quakers scored their most points ever with 23 1/2 points to finish seventh in the Division III team standings. Oakwood won with 52 points. Sixty teams scored.

“That was pretty historic,” Yuhaniak said. “We told them to enjoy it. You’ve got to be proud of the girls.”

Salem freshman Chaya Murray broke her school record in the 200-meter dash in a winning time of 24.52 seconds. It was the sixth-fastest time with only Division I and II girls running faster. She is the third Salem girl to win a state championship.

“I’m so honored,” Murray said. “We have a great program.”

She also anchored the 400- and 1600-meter relay teams that became the second and third Salem girls sprint relay teams to score at state.

She joined seniors Angie Hoffaker and Karlie Sampson and junior Abby Knickerbocker on the 400 relay team that was fifth in a school-record 49.21 seconds.

Then the 1600 relay team of senior Laura Hovorka, Knickerbocker, Sampson and Murray set another school record in 3:59.36 to place eighth.

On Friday, juniors Madolyn Gorby and Peyton Colbert finished third and fifth, respectively, in the high jump.

“That was so well spread out,” Yuhaniak said.

The only other Salem girls relay team less than 3200 meters to place at state was in 2004 when the 1600 relay team placed sixth (4:05.88).

“Things progressed like they should,” Yuhaniak said. “Things could be more special (next year).”

The Salem girls lose five seniors, including Sampson, Hovorka, Hoffaker, Maddy Andres (who was ninth at state in the shot put) and Brooklynn Herold.

The standard has kind of been set,” Yuhaniak said.

“We have a great program and the people we have in place will hold it to that standard,” Sampson said.

LIONS ROAR

It was championship week at Heartland Christian High School in Columbiana.

A week after junior Cooper Grim won the Division II state tennis singles title, sophomore Claire Liposky won the school’s first track state title in the discus on Friday.

“The kids who want to do good, put in extra work,” Liposky said. “We try to be the best we can be and put the work in.”

That gives the Lions three state champions in school history

Senior Rebecca Geiss was a cross country state champion in 2023 and has been the state runner-up the past two years. She also was a state runner-up in the 3200 run as a freshman.

“She’s really good leader, she works hard and he’s nice,” Liposky said. “Rebecca works really hard and it shows.”

Geiss was a four-time state placer in the 3200 run and added a sixth in the 1600 run this year. She was always at her best in the biggest meets.

“Even when another person at our school wins state, they say it is expected of you,” Geiss said.

Liposky and Geiss gave the Heartland girls a seventh-place finish in the team standings with 19 points, by far their best showing.

Liposky’s winning toss of 144-foot-6 was the third best among the five divisions over the weekend.

Also this year, the Heartland boys basketball team won its first district championship and came within a point of making the state semifinals.

BIG LEAP

Salem senior Lucas Adams became only the third Columbiana County athlete to place in the state long jump and high jump in the same year.

Adams was fourth in the Division III long jump (a school-best 23-4) Friday and was eighth in the high jump (6-4) Saturday.

He joins Columbiana’s Boots Hawkins, who did in 1921 and 1922, and Wellsville’s Ron Pullie in 1988.

Hawkins was the state champion in the long jump both years, setting the state meet record at 21-3 3/4 in 1922, and added a second and a third in the high jump. Hawkins won six state titles, including the pole vault both years, the shot put in 1921 and the discus in 1922.

STATE NOTES

• Murray is the first Columbiana County girl to win a state title in the 200 dash.

There have been three boys, including Columbiana’s Bill Entrikin in 1937 and 1938, Leetonia’s Arnold Brooks in 1982 and 1984 and Lisbon’s Jeff McCartney in 2000.

• The last time a county freshman had as good as showing as Murray at the state meet was East Palestine’s Alex Casi in 1999. She was the Division II state champion in the long jump (18-8 3/4) and was eighth in the 200 dash (26.31).

• Liposky joins United’s Victoria Bates as the only county girls discus state champions. Bates won the Division II discus title in 2009 (122-10).

• West Branch had two girls 1600 relay teams break four minutes.

The 2003 Warriors won the state title (3:59.21), a team that included current West Branch assistant coach Vallie Scott.

The 2007 Warriors were state runner-ups (3:54.90).

• The most points the Salem girls scored before was in 1990 and 1991, when they placed fourth and fifth, respectively, in the team standings. State champion Theresa Kaine played a part in all the points.

• Local track and field official Jim Fox from Boardman was a referee at the state meet for the last time.

Fox, 82, first worked at the state meet in 1977 when the girls had an independent meet. He plans on being on the hurdle crew next year.

• Leetonia sophomore hurdler Graydon Henderson was the Leetonia boys’ first state qualifier since Aaron Merrill in 2005. From 1999-2005, the Leetonia boys had 11 state placers in seven years.

• When Smithville senior Kaitlyn Carr was on the podium getting a third straight gold medal in the 1600-meter run, it was announced that her great-great uncle, Dick Greenlee, had placed fourth in the mile run in 1926. Woods from East Palestine was the state runner-up in that race 100 years ago.

• There are more state champions with the OHSAA expanding from three to five divisions.

“With the division changes, it give more people opportunities,” Geiss said.

There were 1,283 additional state qualifiers this year because of the expanded divisions.

There were 1,782 boys from 476 schools and 1,669 girls from 453 schools competing in Columbus over the weekend.

That is 3,451 state qualifiers this year, compared to 2,168 from last year.