Lakota West relay team wins state championship

Credit: David Jablonski

Credit: David Jablonski

Lakota West won the Division I state championship in the boys 3,200-meter relay Friday at Hilliard Darby High School.

The team of Cole Cronk, Zach Beneteau, Sergio Negroe and Zach Plotkin — all seniors — finished first in a school-record time of 7 minutes, 47.48 seconds, beating the second-place team from Loveland by just over a second.

Lakota West qualified for state with a time of 7:49.77 at the regional meet. That was the third-best qualifying time of the 16 relay teams at the state meet.

This was the first state championship meet since 2019 because the 2020 season was cancelled by the pandemic. Pickerington Central was the defending champion in the 3,200 relay, and it finished third (7:49.76).

Lakota West’s Annika Kinley finished as the runner-up in the girls high jump. Kinley went 5-7. Mentor’s Victoria Lanese (5-8) won the event.

Fairfield’s Jaydan Mayes placed fourth in the boys long jump with a leap of 22-9.5. Nicholas Davis of Ross finished sixth in the boys pole vault at 15-0.

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