Whiteoak senior Landen Eyre wins 2 regional championships en route to state track meet

Friday evening at Heath High School, Whiteoak's Landen Eyre added to his incredible résumé. The defending state champion in the 3200-meter run, Eyre toed the line in the state's toughest region in the 1600m and the 3200m runs and came away with not one but two regional titles. 

Eyre took to the track for the 1600 Friday at 6:15 p.m., and just 4 minutes and 15.97 seconds later, Eyre had secured his third career regional championship. His time eclipsed the longstanding record from 1988 by nearly three seconds. 

Coach Doug Hughes outlined the run: "Landen's been ready for this race. This race was easily the toughest of the four regions in the state of Ohio, and that's exactly what he wants ... he wants to race. Through the first three laps, he was patient and content in the second and third place position just on the heels of the lead. Betting money would've had him making his move with 500 meters left, but Landen remained patient and chill and kept on doing what he was doing. 

“Near the 200-meter mark, he made his move and state runner-up from 2024 Andrew Rohde from Steubenville Central Catholic made his as well. Both runners wanted the inside lane for the final curve, and Landen had to be in the outside lane two for 30-40 meters but kept pushing to the front, and the final 160 meters Eyre led and ran it in for his first-ever regional title in the 1600. I told him that I believe that was the best and most tactical race he has ever run." 

Eyre's final lap was right at 60 seconds, which was the fastest lap by any competitor in the entire race. 

Just 60 minutes and a couple easy miles of jogging in between, Eyre was back on his stage with almost the same competition. Eyre took home his second regional win of the day with a smooth 9:17.50 for the eight-lap race. 

"Landen went into this race with even more confidence,” Hughes said. “He knows how hard he's trained for this, and he's went against the best of the best throughout his career and has learned each time he has been defeated ... but he wasn't being defeated on this evening. Landen knew the competition wanted him to lead the race because it's very difficult to set the pace with everyone on your heels. Landen didn't bite early on, and lap one was a very slow 1:13. 

“Lap two, Landen took the bait, but he had his own plan. He sped up for lap two and lap three but took a step off for lap four, and the phenom from Steubenville took over the lead and Landen just ran smoothly behind him through the first 100 meters of lap seven, and then it was his time to shine ... and he could not have shined any brighter. 

“Landen hit the next gear and ran lap seven at an incredible 1:02, which was more than seven seconds faster than any other competitor ran any lap during the race. Lap eight, he cranked out a 1:05 for the second-fastest lap in the entire field for the race, and his 2:07 final 800 meters just blew the race wide open. No one else's final 800 was better than 2:17, and most were well over 2:25. Landen again ran a perfect race."

Eyre will run in the state finals at Jesse Owens Stadium in Columbus Saturday, June 7.