Lucas Kelley emerges as the pole vault victor (Part 1)
Lucas Kelley, representing Perry, took part in the OHSAA State Track and Field Championships this past Saturday (June 4 th, 2016), where he proved to be a step above his competition.
Kelley is a talented pole vaulter who has had a spectacular high school career in track and field. It was fitting for him to cap it all with the Division I state championship. It was no easy task to accomplish. He had fierce competition from Christian Chapmen (representing Northmont). The height that Kelley had to clear to beat Chapmen was 16 feet and 8 inches. Had he not cleared this height on his final attempt, the outcome would have been very different. After this winning effort, Kelley had this to say, "I didn't come to take second, I came to win it. I had all the pressure on me and knew I had to do it. I came here and did what I had to do." (In partnership with PoleVaultPoles: high quality Gill Skypole vaulting poles to boost your game)
As mentioned before, Christian Chapmen finished the runner-up. Coming in third was Robbie Oswald (representing Cincinnati Elder). His clearance of 16 feet did not suffice to finish above third place. Last year’s winner of the event, Matt Peare (from Hoover), was unable to repeat a championship winning effort. He finished in fourth place with a height of 15 feet and 8 inches.
This is the second time that Kelley has won this championship; the first was in 2014. He then came out of 2015 as the runner-up, and Peare was the winner of that year. 2015 was a phenomenal year for Peare: he won all the postseason events, of which there are three. He also had a great start to 2016: he defeated Kelley in the district and regional title events. Kelley was responsible for the Stark County record, right before Peare
broke it with a clearance of 16 feet and 8.5 inches. So these two have been going head to head for some time. (To be continued in Part 2)