Correspondent file photo / Robert Hayes. Austintown Fitch's Brayden Bryant runs during the Division I 100-meter dash at the OHSAA state track meet in Dayton on June 1, 2024. Bryant placed eighth as a freshman with a time of 11.21 seconds.

The high school track and field season officially began March 29, and for many in the Mahoning Valley, hope is high.

Last year, three individual athletes and a relay team from the area captured state championships at the state track meet. In addition to the winners — Maplewood’s Caleigh Richards, Lowellville’s Michael Ballone, Garrettsville Garfield’s Conner Hunt and Lowellville’s 4×400-meter relay team — there were dozens of state placers.

Warren G. Harding, in particular, had a dual placer; Nau’jeat Jones leaped onto the podium in both high and long jump, earning all three points for the team. The Raiders feel as if they can improve upon Jones’s solo effort from a year ago.

“Within our program, we’ve got two goals that we set,” Harding head coach Charles Penny said. “Our first standard is always going to state. That’s No. 1. That’s our standard. I’ve been the head coach here for almost 20 years now, and getting to state is our main objective. Our No. 2 goal is to make sure that every athlete gets to be the best they can within the program. So even if you can’t meet the state goal, if you’re becoming the best athlete you can within that event, then we’re matching that goal.”

Harding appears much more well-equipped to achieve those goals now, thanks to the new Student Recreation and Wellness Center on campus. The Raiders’ track and field team uses the facility as its primary practice facility, which has a 200-meter track and space for many of the throwers and jumpers to train normally.

Penny said the facility has been a massive boost to what was already one of the best track and field programs in the area.

“Running in the hallways and running on an actual track is tremendous for the athletes,” Penny said. “So we’re farther ahead at this point going into the outdoor season than probably we ever have been from a conditioning standpoint, a lot of our athletes. We’re looking forward to, hopefully, good weather and a good continuation of our indoor season.”

Similarly, the Austintown Fitch boys hope indoor success will translate to the spring outdoor season after the Falcons finished as the runner-up at the Ohio Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches (OATCC) Division II state indoor meet in early March.

Fitch boys head coach Seth Steiner said his indoor team comprises about 60 to 70% of the outdoor team, leaving room for numerous expected contributors who wrestled, played basketball or trained by themselves in the winter.

Among the projected top performers for Fitch this season is Brayden Bryant, who qualified and placed at state and was named All-Ohio as a freshman in 2024.

“I think, all things considered, Brayden can probably run in the 10.6s this year on a really good day,” Steiner said, “as long as he runs the right race, he gets some warm weather. He’s definitely capable of doing some impressive things in the 100.”

Bryant opened the season up last weekend by running 10.86, less than a tenth of a second behind his PR as a freshman, despite admittedly not running his best race.

In addition to Bryant, Steiner expects seniors Deonte Stallings and Justin Sahli to be competitive at the end of the season.

Heartland Christian’s Rebecca Geiss, one of the best distance runners in the state, knows all about being in the mix at the end of the season.

As a sophomore, she won a cross country state title, edging out Maplewood’s Richards, and has consistently been near the top of the state podium in both cross country and track and field.

Geiss, who is now a junior, finished fourth in the Division III 3200-meter run at the state meet in Dayton a year ago despite running about 20 seconds quicker than in her second-place performance as a freshman.

“So far, she’s developed every year,” Rebecca’s father and Heartland Christian coach Jeff Geiss said. “Every year, she’s run [personal bests] in cross country, from her seventh grade year to her junior year last fall. She keeps getting faster every year. Want to continue getting faster, and the other girls in the state keep getting faster also. So it makes great competition. Obviously, you always want to do the best that you can, but sometimes, you end up on top. Sometimes, you don’t. Just [have to] keep working hard.”

Jeff Geiss said one of Rebecca’s goals is to run the 1600 in under five minutes, which she was about nine seconds away from doing last year. Had she done so at the state meet, where she only competed in the 3200, she would have finished in the top four.

Jeff typically aschews specific time goals, however, and instead emphasizes general improvement in training as the key to success. Still, he admitted Rebecca may have felt a little empty after failing to repeat as cross country state champion.

“Like last year in cross country, I think there was a little disappointment [from Rebecca],” Jeff Geiss said. “But when you break the state record and you get second, you run your best ever [race], you can’t be disappointed. The old state records, when you break it, but just somebody else beat you by a second or two, you’re running faster, you’re breaking a state record. So I just think as long as we keep getting better and competing hard, I think we need to be happy with that.”

Jeff said Rebecca plans to compete in the 1600 and 3200-meter runs while also using the 800-meter run as a platform for training during the season.

Rebecca Geiss will just be one of many expecting to achieve big things in a few months’ time.

Half of Lowellville’s state title-winning 4×400-meter relay team returns, including 200-meter state placer Drew Modelski. Additionally, no one on Warren JFK’s state runner-up boys 4×200-meter relay team graduated, setting the Eagles up for a hopeful final season together. Several members of the Salem girls team will also likely make some noise again after winning the Division II regional championship in 2024.

The only returning individual state champion is Hunt, who has won every possible seated state title at Garfield. Hunt won the seated 100, 400, and 800-meter races as both a freshman and sophomore, and in July, won a national championship and set a new national record in the 100-meter race.

District meets can begin as soon as May 19 and will be followed by regionals the following week.

The state track and field meet will be held June 6 and 7 in Columbus, returning to Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium at Ohio State after renovations at the stadium forced the meet to be held in Dayton.