A few years ago, I notice that NFL player Brian Hartline (Canton Glen-Oak) was on the ALL-TIME Ohio "Top 10" list in the 300 hurdles at 36.5 or so. He also clocked 14.04 FAT in the 110 hurdles. Interestingly, he was not the school record holder in either as Derrick Williams has that honor. Because of this, we started an "All-Time stark County list" for every event from Stark County Athletes. We have the top 25 or so for each event in the Stark County Meet Program.
Not sure if that list is still on a PDF file or can be shared here, but there are a few schools who have more than one kid in the top 10 EVER for the county in some events.
Maybe Mr. Slippery or someone else has access to that file as I do not. It is a great thing for stat geeks like me to look over.
Before I respond, I must say that Zishka's non-school record performance is phenomenal!
Hartline was a terrific hurdler. His best 300 time is listed as 36.69. His 14.06 in the 110 is 4th all-time in Stark County history but still an excellent time for a school's 2nd best hurdler ever.
Before I go on, an element to consider is school size. It might not be a rare sight for a larger school to produce multiple "fasties" in a particular event (for example, Hudson with Mau and Gaynor running distance events a couple years ago or St. X's Hall and Vitucci from a couple years earlier), but for a small school to have a couple girls record a sub-5:00 in the 1600 or some other great efforts in a particular event, that might get one's attention. We all know what type of role school size can play in producing faster relays, too.
Anyhow, I have last year's Stark County meet program right in front of me. A few non-school records that jumped out at me, some being more impressive than others depending on your grasp of what other schools around Ohio have accomplished:
Boys HJ, Devin Smith of Massillon jumped 7' 0.5" in 2011, but teammate Jamil Dudley jumped 7' 1" in 2010. How many schools in Ohio can claim 2 7'+ high jumpers?
Boys 4x400, Canton McKinley, 3:18.06 in 2017. They had a quartet finish the mile relay in 3:17.5h back in 1971. Those are the top 2 in Stark County history.
Girls 4x100, GlenOak, 47.32 in 2011. Their 2010 quartet had 3 of those 4 girls from 2011 and ran 47.05 for the county record.
Girls 4x800, St. Thomas Aquinas, 9:11.32 in 2017. The time may not seem like much except for the fact that we're talking about a DIII school, and that time would be the Ohio DIII record if not for the St. Thomas Aquinas quartet that ran the Ohio DIII record of 9:05.84 in 2016. St. Thomas Aquinas has had different combinations produce the 3 fastest 4x800 times in the history of Ohio DIII Girls Track & Field. The Soehnlen twins (Kacee and Kalee) were on all 3 of those relays, but the other 2 relay members varied. I know schools like Mason, Geneva, Centerville, etc. have produced multiple fast girls 4x800s. St. X boys have a couple fast 4x800 quartets to their name as well.
Girls HJ, it's not every day that a girl who high jumped 5' 8" is not the school record holder, but such is the case for Hoover's Kristin Frakes from 2001. Maddie Morrow is the queen of the HJ at Hoover after jumping 5'11" 10 years later.
Girls 3200, Athena Welsh of St. Thomas Aquinas ran 10:38.34 in 2016. Kalee Soehnlen had to go and beat that the following year with a DIII state record 10:24.57 under the lights at Carrollton while everyone looked the other way as lightning flashed across the sky for several laps. Again, what makes it incredible is we're talking about a DIII school here.
Girls 1600, Kalee Soehnlen got the St. Thomas 3200 record, but her 4:56.06 in the 1600 in 2017 didn't top Athena Welsh's 4:49.06 from the year before.
Boys 3200, Fairless' Joel Marchand's 1980 Class AA state title winning 9:13.4h isn't good enough to be a record at his mid-sized school thanks to Aaron Melhorn's county record of 9:06.4h from 2006. Marchand finished with 5 career state titles compared to Melhorn's 3. As of this moment, Melhorn is not in his school's Athletic HoF.
Girls 100, GlenOak has had 3 girls break 12.00! Kandace Thomas is the queen at 11.71 in 2010. Nina Grambling comes in at 11.93 in 2011 with Jericha Mann scooting to 11.99 in 2005. Only 1 other school in Stark County has ever had 1 girl break 12.00 in the 100.
Boys 100, Stark County has a 10.59 and 10.61 amongst its top 6 boys 100 times ever. Neither is a school record. Massillon sprinter Deionne Harper's 10.59 from 2015 is .03 behind county leader Devin Smith's 10.56 from 2011, and Uniontown Lake's Jimmy Luther clocked a 10.61 in 2010, but that doesn't top Dan Bailey's 10.57 from 2002.
Can 148'6" be your school record in the girls discus? Not for Hoover's Krista Ross from 2000. The great Ashley Muffet shattered that one 5 years later with a 162' 4". That's just a prelude for the ones I'll mention next that were not from Stark County:
The Pendleton sisters from Elmore Woodmore where Erin has the DIII state meet and Owens Stadium record of 168'10", but Emily has the Ohio DIII record and thus the Woodmore school record of 183' 3". Schools like McDonald (Matthias Tayala and Christian Smith in the discus), Rootstown, Garrettsville Garfield, and the aforementioned Lancaster also come to mind for this one since they're always churning out state championship caliber throwers. Tayala threw 196' 3" for the DIII state meet record in 2011. Smith said "hold my protein shake" and launched it 203' 9" in 2015 for the Ohio DIII record.
What about Olentangy Liberty's Uhle brothers in the pole vault? Chris vaulted either 16' 9" or 16' 10" as his career best (16'9" in 2010 for sure, I can't recall if he cleared 16' 10" in 2011). Brother Joey bested him with a 17'0" effort in 2011.
