BUCYRUS — Colonel Crawford senior Katie Ruffener was red-hot on a chilly April day.
The standout runner captured a quartet of firsts as the Lady Eagles topped Lexington 143-125 to take honors in the 14-team Bucyrus Elks Invitational track and field meet Saturday.
“It’s a pretty good day. I just came off my indoor season. It’s my first meet back for the outdoor,” Ruffener said after winning the 300-meter hurdles in a time of 47.68 seconds.
A pretty good day indeed as Ruffener broke the previous mark set by Wynford’s Amber Rall in 2002, with a time of 47.73.
She also took first in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.28 seconds, the long jump with a leap of 16 feet, 7 and 1/4 inches and the 100 meters in 12.84 seconds.
Rall also holds the 100-meter dash mark with a time of 12.50.
“The distances are a lot longer (outdoors) and the colder weather,” Ruffener said.
She thinks the two hurdles events are her best.
“I’ll definitely be pushing harder for those because that’s what I’ll be doing in college at Iowa State.”
Ruffener has carried on a great tradition at Colonel Crawford.
“My school coaches have been great in helping me with my high school career. I run for a club out of Columbus, and they’ve done a lot for me,” she said.
“Overall, it’s been a great high school career. It’s gotten better every year.”
As a younger prep athlete Ruffener was “just trying to survive, get through it and learn things.”
Ruffener thinks the mental aspect of her sport can always be sharpened.
“I feel like your mentality is really important, Yeah, you have to be in great physical condition. But some of these races are just straight up … you have to be mentally tough through it all. That’s a great thing to work on.”
She and other track and field athletes are looking forward to warmer temperatures in the coming weeks.
“I would feel a little bit better because standing at the start you get cold and then you’re standing around,” Ruffener said. “My body wasn’t as ready, so I feel like it would have gotten better times, but not that much better.”
Assistant track coach Michael Moore gave Ruffener credit for her stellar performances.
“Katie has done a good job indoor, working in the hurdles in the Adidas Track Nationals and placing in all those events herself,” Moore said. “She was really excited about placing in those events.”
She won gold in the 60-meter hurdles in 8.58 seconds at the meet held in Virginia Beach.
“We have a lot of high-end girls right now. We’re looking to compete for something bigger. We were regional runner-up last year. We have some unfinished business,” Moore said.
Mira Holt took first in the girls 400-meter dash in 1:02.98, nudging Wynford’s Chloe Kaple by .01 seconds.
The 4×400 meter team of Gabriella Roston, Holt, Rylee Ritzhaupt and Lynae McKibben placed second behind Lexington with a time of 4:24.24. All four are underclassmen.
The Colonel Crawford boys finished 6th with 52 points.
“We have a ton of depth. It’s really competitive at practice. We’re trying some new things with our speed work and the kids are buying into it,” he said.
The tradition has been strong at the North Robinson school for a number of years.
“Coaches (Preston) Foy and (Jody) Grove have set the tone for years and years. Getting coach (Todd) Roston and coach (Colby) Bright involved when they came over from Galion has been great. Coach (Bret) DeGray, he’s great in the vault.”
Keeping kids coming out for track and field involves a bit of an internal recruiting pitch.
“You definitely got to sell your program on them. We have some high jumpers who are basketball players. If you want to be a better jumper and be able to go up and dunk the ball, you better come out for high jump.
“You’ve got to get stronger for every sport, so we lift every single day. Speed work. We even have some of our linemen running sprints just to be faster,” Moore noted. “It’s great when all of our coaches work great together.”