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“It feels pretty good because freshman year I was third and last year I was second,” Mastin said. “I really wanted to win it this year.”
Mastin stretched her lead to about 13 seconds during her four laps around the track, including down the backstretch and into a chilly wind. She crossed the line in 5 minutes, 25.51 seconds to beat Bellefontaine junior Brooke McClellan by a distant 6.45 seconds.
“It’s been windy pretty much all spring. That’s the biggest thing,” Mastin said of battling elements. “I couldn’t care less about rain or shine. It’s the wind.”
The victory was nice, but it wasn’t all that Mastin was looking for. In the CBC race last season she finished second in 5:10.37 seconds. The school record is 5:10. Mastin hasn’t challenged it this season running in the 5:15 range.
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“I usually have a plan going into every race. This one was to go for the school record,” Mastin said. “It’s a different plan every race. Some races I’m kind of laid back if I have to run again later. But today I wanted the record but I didn’t get it.”
Mastin might have to wait until next season to make another run at the record. She’ll likely run the 800 at next week’s Division I district meet instead of the mile. Mastin qualified for state in the 800 last season and finished 11th.
Shawnee junior Alex Dyar just missed out on a title in the boys 1,600 in the Kenton Trail Division, finished second to Jonathan Alder junior Luke Malone by 0.08 seconds. Dyar, running in a four-person pack, took the lead with 300 meters left and nearly matched Malone’s sprint to the finish.
“It was crazy. It looked real close but he definitely got me. Great competition,” said Dyar, who finished in 4:39.56. “With 300 meters left we were all so close so you had to go or you were going to get caught from behind.”
Dyar, who finished third in the event at last season’s meet, was looking for a top-three finish again.
“You’re fighting everything mentally trying to stay positive going down the stretch. You’re fighting with everything you’ve got left,” Dyar said. “It’s still great. Absolutely amazing race.”
Tuesday featured several field event finals and running preliminaries. The top eight finishers from each preliminary race return Friday for the division finals.
Area winners in field event finals from Tuesday included Northwestern junior Kassidy Carpenter, who repeated as the Mad River 3,200 champion in 12:13.45. Northwestern senior Blake Jamison won the discus with a throw of 160-11.0. That edged junior teammate Korbin Spencer, who finished second with 160-09. No other thrower in the Mad River division went past 138, while the winning throw from the Kenton Trail division was 146-06.
Tecumseh senior Simon Herbert won the Kenton Division pole vault with 11-06. Urbana senior Nicholas Argerter won the Mad River division with an effort of 13-04.
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