Simmons, Dykema have strong showings at state tournament

When the chips were down, Emelia Simmons had a great showing.

The Gibsonburg junior did not disappoint, finishing 44th out of 187 runners in 19 minutes, 46.5 seconds at the Division III state tournament in Columbus.

“I was pleased,” said Gibsonburg coach Beth Kohler. “We were hoping she could get into the top 30. It was a solid race; she had been nursing a bit of a quad injury. I was a little nervous going in, but she just stood up to it really well. She’s hoping her team can get there with her next year to Columbus.”

It was a banner season for Simmons, who was 16th at regionals (20:07.3), third at districts (19:41.29) and second at the Sandusky Bay Conference River Division tournament (20:03.59).

She is also the Alan Miller Jewelers All-Press runner of the year. 

“I was really pleased with the season for Emelia. She had a difficult transition from middle school to high school,” said Kohler. “Her freshman season wasn’t what she wanted it to be. She didn’t have track her freshman season (because of the coronavirus). I think she found herself again as a runner; she’s very coachable. She was willing to put in the mileage over the summer; she believes in the system and is very open-minded. I think she believes in herself.

“Hopefully we can do a lot of cross training this winter, in addition to running. She knows she has to work on her flexibility and work on her core strength. I think she’s really committed because she has seen what (competing at state) was like.”

The Golden Bears had a great season, finishing second at the NBC tournament, fifth at districts and finished 20th at regionals.

Brianna Montgomery and Mary Myerholtz helped pace Gibsonburg throughout the season.

“Brianna Montgomery, she was solidly our number-two all season long. She battled an ankle injury; she had a really solid season,” said Kohler. “Our third runner, Marianne Myerholtz, had a really strong season from start to finish.”

Some of the other top runners included Kara Long, Sophia Paul, Kalyn Johnson and Ally Sentle. All of the top seven will be back next season as the Bears look to make a push to get to Columbus.

Logan Dykema

Oregon native Logan Dykema helped lead St. Francis to a 19th-place finish in Div. I, earning him Alan Miller Jewelers All-Press runner of the year honors.

He finished 131st in 17:00.0, finishing behind teammates Ethan Cope (54th in 16:07.3) and Rylan Winkler (57th in 16:08.7), 

Fellow Knights Dylan Gomez (151st in 17:20.3), Duncan Borland (153rd in 17:22.7), Jameson Heck (154th in 17:26.9) and Connor Become (168th in 17:44.7) rounded out the top seven for St. Francis.

Div. I features the best of the best, and to give one an idea of how competitive the race was, 41 runners finished in under 16:00.0.

“Since we have a bunch of fast runners, we were pretty hopeful that we’d make it to state. Some of the workouts we did were pretty hard, but we are close and have a brotherhood,” Dykema said. “During the races, when we wanted to give up, we’d think about our teammates and push each other.”

Dykema talked about the conditions of the race, which took place in Columbus.

“The actual race itself was very crowded. I was boxed in a lot of the time, but as the race went on, it got better. It was a fun race; overall I was pretty satisfied with how we did as a team.

“Usually, I try to get out as fast as possible. If I’m not able to do that, I try harder during the first mile to catch back up. I speed up during the second mile, and the third mile, I start to get tired; the last 1,000 meters, I speed up, and the last 200-300 meters is when I start kicking.”

St. Francis coach Aaron Al-Sorghali, known as “Coach Sorge,” talked about his runners.

“There is no magic secret to being a good runner — it takes hard work, consistent work to be better,” he said. “That and the fact that the guys want to be there for each other and pull their weight.”

Al-Sorghali had high praise for Dykema.

“He’s just tough as nails and refuses to back down in the second half of races,” Al-Sorghali said. “He also has a keen ability to execute his race plan, despite how big the race or moment may be.”

The Knights had a fantastic season, winning the Three Rivers Athletic Conference and a district title while finishing one point short of winning a regional championship. Dykema’s PR (personal record) came when he ran a 16:37.3 at districts.

“Logan’s best time was 19:30 during his freshman year. Now, two years later, he is running at 16:37 and competing at the highest levels in distance running in the state,” said Al-Sorghali. “I’m very proud of his improvement and the work he has done to be this good.”

Discussing the teams weekly regimen, Dykema said, “Usually, three out of five days were just normal – we’d have maintenance mileage. For one to two workouts per week, we’d do some kind of distance at a set pace; for example, eight to 12 400s that we’d have to do in about 1:13.0, maybe 1:10.0 or 1:20.0 – it got faster as the year went on,” he said. “On Sundays, we’d usually have a long-distance day, so the short end would be eight miles and one time we did 13 miles.

“Usually, in our team meetings, Coach would go over our paces and give us a plan for our paces during the race and he really tries to inspire us to beat the other teams, and it usually works really well. You can really tell when he thinks you’re really going to do well in a race,” Dykema said.