Not only did the Big Walnut High School boys track and field team have to walk away from the OCC-Capital Division meet without the league championship, it had to accept the fact that its record was no longer unblemished.

The Golden Eagles had won every meet in which they competed this season until the league meet May 15 at Hilliard Bradley. There, they scored 137 points to finish a distant second behind champion Watkins Memorial (184). New Albany was third with 109, followed by Olentangy Orange (71), Bradley (52), Mount Vernon (41), Delaware (40) and Franklin Heights (24).

"As a team, it was a disappointing day for us," coach Eric Myers said. "The guys were focused all year on (winning the OCC title) and they poured their hearts into it. A lot of kids had solid performances. I told them they have nothing to hang their heads about. It's tough to swallow, but we had a good meet. And we're 68-1. That's pretty darn good."

Big Walnut, which was seeking its first OCC title since 2003, won five events - the most of any team. Watkins Memorial and New Albany each won four events and Orange finished first in one event.
"Watkins (Memorial) has some real strong hurdlers," Myers said. "They hurt us bad in those two events and they put it to us in the two throws."

Two Golden Eagles walked away with two individual league titles, as Bret Myers won the pole vault in 14 feet and the 400 meters in 49.85 seconds and Jordan Whitner finished first in the 100 (11.24) and 200 (22.63).

Big Walnut's other first-place finish was turned in by the 400 relay of Caleb Garcia, Lucas Garcia, Joey Johnson and Cody Leitner (44.01).

"Jordan had a great meet. He scored 30 points," coach Myers said. "Bret also had a great meet, scoring 29 points. Both have been solid for us all year."

Whitner's twin brother, Jason, competed in the meet after missing most of the season with a hamstring injury, but his return was short-lived, as he aggravated the injury while running on the 800 relay, which placed third (1:31.86).

"He ran the third leg and tweaked his hamstring about 50, 60 meters in, and we dropped from first to third," coach Myers said. "He's done for the year. He's disappointed. He's only competed in three meets all year."

The girls team scored 72 points in the OCC-Capital meet to place fifth, behind Watkins Memorial (145.5), New Albany (138), Mount Vernon (82.5) and Orange (82) and ahead of Franklin Heights (62), Bradley (56) and Delaware (25).

"Our team score doesn't show this, but we had a really, really good meet," coach Joe Evener said. "Eight girls set personal records and two relays had season bests. The girls worked so hard and performed so hard, and that's all I can ask from them."

The Golden Eagles last won the OCC-Capital championship in 2004.

"Our team relies on our depth and scoring across the board, and this week we weren't able to do that," Evener said. "Our secondary points were basically nonexistent. But I'm proud of the girls. In the OCC-Capital, the competition is second to none, but we didn't shy away from the competition. We didn't let it intimidate us."

The Golden Eagles did not win any events. Placing second were Leah Thomas in the 100 (12.95) and the 800 relay of Rachael Missman, Chelsea DeLay, Lauren Ustaszewski and Brea Medlock (1:47.4). Finishing third were Julia Evans in the 300 hurdles (48.2) and long jump (16-1), Bethany Bogantz in the 800 (program-record 2:24.18) and the 400 relay of Missman, Callie Carioti, Ustaszewski and Evans (51.56).

•DISTRICT MEET - The boys team competed in the Division I district 3 meet held last Wednesday, last Thursday and last Saturday at Dublin Coffman and the girls team competed in the district 1 meet last Tuesday, last Thursday and last Saturday at the same site.

The top four finishers in each district event advance to the regional meet Wednesday and Friday at Pickerington North. The top four finishers in each regional event qualify for the state meet June 4-5 at Ohio State.

The boys team competed in the field events last Wednesday. Qualifying for regional were Myers in the pole vault (first, 15-0), Tyler Fifer in the high jump (third, 6-2) and Jordan Whitner in the long jump (fourth, 20-11).

The girls team qualified for regional in the 3,200 relay (fourth, 9:55.12) last Tuesday. The rest of the running events held that day were preliminaries. The Golden Eagles did not advance anyone to regional in the field events held last Thursday.