Welcome to the Ohio Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches. This association has three key purposes. To promote track, field, and cross country in all of the junior and senior high schools of Ohio; and also extend support to those programs in the state's colleges and universities. To cooperate with and assist the OHSAA and Ohio's colleges and universities in all the matters pertaining to maintenance, promotion, and improvement of track, field, and cross country. And to Recognize and award outstanding achievement and/or contribution by athletes, coaches, officials, or supporters.

2008 USATF Junior Track and Field Championships The Junior's were held at Jesse Owens stadium over the weekend and several Ohio track prep stars competed among the United States' best junior athletes. Former Ohio stars returned home and joined other Ohio college athletes to compete for a spot on the US team. Delta Timing has the results available at http://www.deltatiming.com/2008_usatf_juniors.aspx. For more information about the meet, the US team and the competition in Poland, visit USATF's site at http://www.usatf.org/. 

Membership in the OATCCC is now an annual membership. If you have joined the association this year, your membership is good for all of 2008. If you attended the clinic in February you do not need to do anything else, membership comes with a paid clinic registration. Join the OATCCC for the calendar year 2008 by downloading the membership form today. Beginning this year, we will use the current members list as for our email contact page. This page will be posted after the clinic registrations are closed and the former page will no longer be maintained. Need to contact a member? Click here.

Midwest Meet of Champions Congratulations Team Ohio! The men's team finished first in MMC and the women's team second giving Team Ohio a second place finish with their combined score. Check out the complete results on the Midwest pages where you can see all of Team Ohio's marks including several meet records.

Highlights from the women's meet came from some familiar names to track enthusiasts. Arguably the best female performance came from Meshawn Graham who ran 53.56 in the 400 meter dash breaking the old meet record by more than a half second. The time of 2:10.0 run by Emily Infeld (Cleveland Heights Beaumont) is the second fastest time in meet history. The second meet record set by an Ohioan this year was by Mackenzie Wills (Troy Christian) in the pole vault. Wills broke the record by 9 inches jumping 12' 9". Bridget Jacobs' (Parma Normandy) jump of 19' 3.75" placed her at the top of the podium this year and into the top 5 marks all time for the long jump.

The men's team dominated the competition highlighted by their sweep in the 400 meter dash. John Guagenti (Bluffton) ran 46.95, Thomas Murdaugh (Dublin Scioto) ran 47.32 and Kendall Gregory (Stongsville) ran 48.16. Gaugenti and Murdaugh find themselves on the all time best performances list with those marks. The quarter-milers were joined by Donte Lyons (Trotwood Madison) in the 4 x 400 meter relay where they ran a 3:09.39 breaking a 14 year old record set by Michigan in 1994. Terrance Sommerville's (Akron Buchtel) 14.0 was the best 110 meter high hurdle mark for the day. Likewise was Princeton Bryson's (Toledo Bowsher) 200 meter dash mark of 21.60.

The 4 x 800 meter relay team also won with a time of 7:42.87. The team was comprised of Dontave Cowsette (Cleveland Heights), Joey Cherico (Strongsville), Mike Knisely (Reynoldsburg) and TJ Holland (McDonald). They weren't the only 800 runners with a gold medal. Jared Hall (Cleveland Heights) ran 1:52.14 to win the open 800 meter run. And Joseph Miller (Toledo St. Johns Jesuit) ran 4:11.37 to win the 1600. But Walter Luttrell's (Dayton Christian) star may have shined brightest in the distance events on the men's side this year with his sub 9 minute 3200 meter run performance of 8:59.81.

Team Ohio performed well in the field events as well, boasting two gold medalists. Tyshaun Peoples jump of 23' 3" put him atop the podium. Possibly the best individual performance of the day for the men's team came from team Ohio's Ryan Fleck in the high jump. Fleck's new meet record of 7' 2" broke the 10 year old record of  an Indiana athlete by an inch.

The Spring Edition of the Runner is now available here.

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For track and field enthusiasts, Saturday offered 3 terrific finals with some meets outcomes determined in the final event. For a complete list of results and photos go to the Ohio High School Athletic Associations track and field tournament pages. www.ohsaa.org. Shown here are the division 2 gold medal team members of the Vincent Warren 4x800m relay team (7:54.86), Nick Wilson, Justin Roush, Tyler Cantley, Sam Majoy and coach Al Riffey.