Going out on top: Lake’s Scheffler win state title in 3200

In all track races save the shortest sprints, the finish is gut-wrenching—lungs burning as your body begs for oxygen, muscles aching and fatigued from a buildup of lactate as you enter the homestretch and eye the finish line.

Champions, however, work through the pain and overcome the obstacles.And "champion" is precisely what Daniela Scheffler is.

The senior, in the last race of what has been a storied athletic career at Lake, won the 3,200-meter run at the OHSAA Division I state track meet. The title serves as a perfect bookend to the cross-country championship Scheffler won in the fall.

Scheffler won the race in 10:21.82, slightly more than three seconds ahead of Lancaster’s Marisa Heil. To hear Scheffler describe it, however, those 10-odd minutes—and the immediate aftermath of receiving her medal—were not the most enjoyable moments.

“Coming into this race, I feel like the work’s already been done, and the journey is the best part of it,” she said. “Getting to come here with my friends and family, and knowing they’re in the stands—that’s honestly the best part. The good feeling wasn’t so much being on top of the podium, but everything you can see from up there and how far I’ve come—that’s the best part.”

It was a warm, humid day at OSU’s Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium as Scheffler doubled up—meaning that just hours before the grueling 3,200, she had already competed in the taxing 1,600-meter run. In that race, Scheffler finished second, falling short by just half a second to Olentangy Orange’s Brooke Chapman.

“The mile didn’t quite go how I expected,” Scheffler said. “It was super tactical, which was really fun to kind of navigate.”

With just 400 meters to go in the 1,600, Scheffler trailed by less than one-tenth of a second, but Chapman’s final-lap kick proved decisive as she successfully defended her title.

Still, although Scheffler entered the state meet ranked No. 1 in the state in both races, the 3,200 is her favored event.

“It definitely felt good—more like a break mentally—to just run the 3,200 and know I had it under control. I could just trust my gut to go whenever I needed to, and that felt really awesome.”

As the 3,200 got underway, Scheffler began in eighth position. While some competitors sprinted ahead, she bided her time. By the 800-meter mark, she had moved into fourth and was ready to make her move. By the close of the following lap, showing no signs of fatigue, Scheffler had passed Heil and Dublin Jerome’s Natalie Fouts to take the lead—a position she would not relinquish for the remainder of the race.

“Physically, I felt pretty good,” said Scheffler. “I think I’ve practiced—like, I’ve doubled—pretty well the past few weeks. I just stuck to the routine, and it paid off.”

Scheffler, who is headed to North Carolina State this fall to continue her career, ends a brief drought for Lake while continuing a tradition. Her track title is the school’s first since Nathan Moore’s 2021 championship in—fittingly—the boys’ 3,200-meter run.

As a result of Scheffler’s performance, Lake tied Beavercreek for ninth overall with 18 points. Hilliard Davidson won the girls’ team title with 55 points.

Scheffler wasn’t the only Blue Streak to compete at state. Sophomore Andrew Vensel placed 15th in the boys’ 1,600-meter run.