BY YANEEK SMITH 

LEXINGTON — Qualifying for the state tournament in one event is to be admired. Doing it in four events is very rare. Oak Harbor junior Hayden Buhro not only qualified for state in the 100 meter dash, finishing third, and the 200, coming in fourth, but was part of two relay teams — the 4×100 relay and the 4×200 relay — that punched their tickets to Columbus after their respective performances at a Division II regional meet at Lexington High School.

Perkins won the boys competition with 79 points, followed by Central Catholic, which had 66. Oak Harbor had one of its best showings in its history and finished fifth with 45 points.

“I was extremely excited for everybody that earned their way to state, especially out of the Lexington region. You have to be really, really good just to be able to compete with those schools at the regional meet, and that was awesome,” said Oak Harbor coach Andy Augsburger.

“Our kids have been preparing for this, for some of them, dating back to October, by lifting and getting prepared and making sure everybody was good to go. I’m excited for the opportunity. Last year, we finished 13th in the 4×100 at state and they were regional champions this year.

“We won the regional in that relay, which is pretty significant. To win that, you have to be extremely fast and they are, they were extremely excited. We also finished 13th in the 4×200 at state last year. We have two guys back on the 4×100 and three people who ran the 4×200 last year.”

The 4×100 (Buhro, Hayden Hower, Isiah Miller, Jaqui Hayward) won the meet in 42.64 seconds. The 4×200 (Hower, Buhro, Judson Overmyer, Owen Miller) took fifth in 1:29.35 and earned an at-large bid.

“That shows you how fast that region is,” said Augsburger. “You have to be really good to get out.”

Buhro was third in the 100 (11.06) and fourth in the 200 (22.40).

Augsburger talked about Buhro’s commitment in getting to this point.

“Last year, as a sophomore, he had a lot of success, right from the get-go. He knew what he wanted to attain for this year. He told me what his goals were, and he’s trained extremely hard with the intent to get to state,” Augsburger said. “He wanted to be an SBC champion in the 100, the 200 and the 4×100 and 4×200 — he was SBC Bay Division champion in four events. Getting to state was the second goal. Training wise, he has done everything we’ve asked of him and more.”

Augsburger talked about his team finishing fifth in such a tough region.

“Sometimes 45 points will get you a regional runner-up, and I believe that’s the most points scored and the best place we’ve gotten since the late 1990s when Tom Osborne had some great athletes like Jason, his son, Jon Bickelhaupt, Mark Kremer, Isaac Martin, who had the school record for the 4×400 and finished fifth at state at 3:21.54.”

On the girls side, Rylie McKitrick, earned an at-large spot in the 100, Amelia Mizelle finished third in the 300 hurdles (46.06) and the 4×100 relay team of McKitrick, Mizelle, Effie Schulte and Riley McKitrick got an at-large bid.Port Clinton’s 4×100 relay took third in the 4×100 relay as Gracie Rohrer, Rebekah Nehls, Jade Mitchell, and Alexis Shelton finished in 49.39.