State Preview: Lions 4x800m relay returning to the big stage

(Editor’s note: Hillsboro and McClain state track and field features will be posted later in the week.)...

Running in front of a few thousand track and field fans is nothing new to the Fairfield Lions 4x800-meter relay team, which consists of senior Trent Swisher, juniors Matthew Mangus and Noah Richmond and sophomore Brandtson Duffie. In fact, they relish taking part on the big stage with all four runners returning to the OHSAA Division III State Track and Field Championships for a second consecutive year.

This time around, though, the Lions aren’t just happy to be in the event. This time, they want to improve on the time they finished with last year and to beat some teams along the way. 

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The Lions are coming off the Athens Regional last weekend where they finished fourth with a season-best time of 8:22.41, surpassing the first-place time they had at districts (8:23.96) for a new district record and the first-place time at the Southern Hills Athletic Conference Championships (8:35.20). In fact, the Lions relay team has already raced to a faster time this season than where they finished one year ago at state when they had a time of 8:44.43.

“It’s a tremendous honor. It’s very difficult to qualify for track and field,” Fairfield coach Bill Mangus said of the 4x800m relay team qualifying for state again. “Only 16 of the best athletes per event get to make it to the state championships. It’s also shown how our program has grown from not only a long-distance program but also a middle-distance program. We’ve proven we can compete in middle distance as well as long distance, so our program keeps evolving.

“I expect personal records out of our athletes. Hopefully the level of competition will draw out the best from our athletes and everyone can run personal records this weekend and place as high as they possibly can. They’ve improved all their times – every single runner has – and collectively our relay’s also improved down a time too. It shows good progression from one year to the next.”

Going into Friday’s race at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium, located on the campus of The Ohio State University, the Fairfield Lions relay team of Swisher, Mangus, Richmond and Duffie all want to be better than their current time, and if they are able to do so, who knows what could happen then.

“It’s pretty awesome to go back for a second time. We went last year with the same team, and we’re doing it again faster and better this time,” Swisher said. “With us finally having a track to train on and an actual track to work out on so we don’t have to go driving 20 minutes to get to East Clinton, it has made a big difference. It’s helped us out a lot this season.

“We want to race better this time. We didn’t race so well last year, so I’d like to see us race better this year than last year.”

The senior, who is also a four-time state qualifier at the state cross-country championships, has not only enjoyed the season, but has improved in recent weeks, helping him and his teammates return to race at Ohio State.

“My season has gotten better toward the end. I wasn’t doing so well toward the beginning, but now I’m down in the 2:05s,” Swisher said. “I was in the 2:10s, so I’ve dropped about five seconds since the beginning of the year. I’ve just trained really hard during practice and on the weekends.

“It’s much different last year because we have a better chance of racing better at the state meet than we did last year. I’m a little more confident this year because I’ve gotten there twice. It’s been pretty great.”

With this being the swan song for Swisher, junior teammates will be in the same position of their senior teammate next season. But for this year, juniors Mangus and Richmond know they have to race improved over last year’s state performance, and that has been a goal of theirs since that last race.

“This year seems similar to last year, really. We’ve just all gotten better and moved up this year at regionals and were more serious this year at regionals,” Mangus said. “Last year when we were there, we were just happy to be there, and this year we really had a shot to go to state so we were a lot more serious because we knew we could be in that top four.”

Mangus spoke about the path of qualifying for state track.

“It’s evolving more into where regionals isn’t the final goal,” Mangus said. “We’re trying to look past regionals more now and look more toward state and prepare more for state instead of preparing all for regionals. The goal is to always qualify for state.

“For the 4x800 meter relay, I just want to run a good race this year and run our fastest time because I feel like we haven’t reached our full potential in that event yet. I think we can go under 8:20 for our time, and we haven’t done that yet.

“In the team event, I hope we might be able to squeeze in on the podium. We just all need to run our fastest times on that day. We all need to run a good race together. It’s hard for all of us to run well on the same day, and we just need to put it all together.”

Mangus also qualified for the 3200m run as an individual, finishing with a second-place regional runner-up time of 10:03.41 in the 3200m run. At districts, Mangus had a time of 10:04.27, where he placed second at 10:04.27. At the SHAC Championships, Mangus also finished in second with a time of 10:00.62.

Mangus, who is also Academic All-Ohio, spoke about his 3200m season.

“I felt like things started clicking after the Eastern Relays when I ran a 10:02 there,” he said. “For the 3200 meter, I’m just happy to be there, and I’m just going to go out there and try to run my fastest time and just beat some people. I just want to run a new PR and go under 10 minutes.”

Fellow junior Richmond is also excited and ready to return to the state event, as he too has raced many times in front of a state crowd, whether it be at state track or at state cross-country. Richmond also qualified to run at state in the 1600m run.

During regionals, Richmond finished wth a third-place time of 4:32.02 to qualify for the first time to state as an individual. At the SHAC Championships, Richmond was third with a time of 4:44.98, and during districts, he finished with a championship time (Southwest) of 4:32.46.

“Last year, we had the same four make it, and we thought since we didn’t lose anybody and everybody seemed to progress in cross-country, we’d stay at it and keep working and just try to do better this year,” Richmond said of the 4x800m relay team. “It just seemed more serious this year. We’re dedicated to it.”

He continued to talk about how racing the 1600m event and qualifying for state also helps with the 4x800m relay team as well.

“The way I look at it, especially being in the 4x8, as long as you’re doing your best, you’re helping your team and yourself,” Richmond said. “So as I’m pushing for myself and my individual best, I’m also at the same time benefitting the 4x8. I did indoor track too. It helps a lot because it just keeps your muscles going and keeps you in the routine of racing. I think once you make it (to state), then you’ve kind of got that confidence. As long as you’re working hard, you’re up there already, you’ve just got to stay up there.

“For my mile, I’m going for time to get my best time I’ve had all year, and for the 4x8, I just want to beat more people than we did last year.”

The sophomore of the team, Duffie, who is also an Academic All-Ohio member, qualified for not only the 4x800m relay event, but will race in the 800m event as an individual for the first time at the state level.

“I came into the season fairly confident that I could do really well in the 800 this year. I ran the mile a little bit to start, but after I started progressing through the season, I was like, I want to run the 800,” Duffie said. “Our last indoor meet at Marshall, I actually ran 2:01 and knew I was set for a good season. I ran 2:05 at the league, which I was very happy about, and I won. Then I won districts with 1:59, and I knew I was going to have to run faster if I wanted to advance to state.

“I just got to regionals and ran like I knew I could and ran a second better PR, and I was runner-up at regionals, which blew me out of the water because honestly I thought I was going to be trying to fight for a top four spot at the end of the season. I was very happy about that. I’m seeded around the 10th guy at state, and my goal is to be Top 8, get podium and get one of those Ohio-shaped medals at state. I feel like it would be really special for me to be one of the top eight 800 runners as a sophomore, so that’s what I’m striving for.”

Duffie also raced at the state cross-country meet like his teammates on the 4x800m relay, so he too knows what it is like to race in front of a big crowd at the state level on a consistent basis. Following the conclusion of the fall cross-country season, he began his preparation for the spring.

“I came in a lot harder this year,” Duffie said of his preparation from last year to this year. “Between cross-country and track, I didn’t take much time off. I worked really hard. I knew I could have a special track season if I put my mind to it. I worked harder in workouts and worked harder overall to qualify for state.”

Duffie ended by speaking about the 4x800m relay team and how it means a lot to repeat as state qualifiers.

“For the 4x8, it’s a lot of fun having four guys, especially three of my best friends on the team, qualify for state again,” he said. “It just shows how much we’ve progressed throughout the season, how tightly we’ve become bonded in the 4x8.”

Coaches Bill Mangus and Debbie Mangus spoke about the four racers and the opportunity that is in front of them this weekend.

“As a coach, you invest yourself in the outcomes, and you get your hopes up trying to see if kids are going to believe in it and hopefully they will believe in it. The biggest goal and objective is trying to get kids to make an investment and hard work to achieve great accomplishment,” the coaches said. “Running and racing, there’s a lot of uncertainty and there’s a lot of fear of failure. You have to get kids to believe that they are tougher and stronger than they actually are, and that’s what we’re trying get to in this program.”