One year after being resuscitated at a meet, Northwestern senior claims state track championship

Riedinger’s fourth throw of the day — 59 feet, 7½ inches — won the title. Genoa’s Noah Koch finished second (58-2½).

"It's surreal," said Riedinger, who finished second at the regional meet. "It's crazy. I've worked so hard for it."

Riedinger collapsed at the district meet in 2018 while warming up for the discus. His heartbeat was out of sync, and he was resuscitated by a defibrillator. To correct the problem, a cardioverter defibrillator was implanted into his chest a couple days later.

» EARLIER COVERAGE: ‘God has a plan for me’ 

Riedinger signed with Ohio State in November and won the state title on the field that will be his home for the next four years. Riedinger finished third in the shot put as a sophomore and was not able to compete at state last season. He planned on returning this season and winning it all. He became Northwestern's first state champion in a throwing event.

“There’s no way there’s not a God,” Riedinger said. “He helped me all the way through it. He got me here. It’s amazing.”

Riedinger’s fellow Northwestern senior, Blake Jamison finished 12th in the shot put with a throw of 49-10¼.

Credit: David Jablonski - Staff Writer

Credit: David Jablonski - Staff Writer

Good start: West Liberty-Salem won the first event of the day. The 4x800 relay team of junior Grace Adams, sophomores Madison Bahan and Katelyn Stapleton and freshman Megan Adams finished first in 9 minutes, 19.8 seconds in the D-III race, putting the Tigers in a good spot to compete for the team title Saturday. It's a new school record.

“It’s the best feeling ever,” Grace Adams said. “It’s what I’ve worked for all season, since I was in middle school. It’s good that hard work paid off.”

Minster finished second in 9:30.63 after beating West Liberty-Salem in the regional championship. A week ago, Minster won the race in Troy in in 9:20.59, and the Tigers finished second in 9:22.22. Minster won the race at state in 2018 in 9:18.41.

Podium finishes: Greenon junior Cameron Algren finished third in the D-II pole vault, clearing a height of 14-10.

West Liberty-Salem junior Lydia Moell finished fourth (12-2) in the D-III pole vault.

Other D-III results: West Liberty freshman Emily Hollar had the best qualifying time in the 400-meter dash (57.31).

• West Liberty’s 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400 relay teams all advanced to Saturday’s finals.

• In the 200 hurdles, Triad junior Dominick McFarland had the second-best preliminary time (39.62), and Cedarville senior Trey Gruet qualified seventh (40.26).

• Mechanicsburg sophomore Chayse Propst qualified for the 100-meter dash finals with the fifth-best time in the preliminaries (11.10).

• Triad junior Eli Obrien had the seventh-best preliminary time in the 200 (22.46).