Buckeye, Cloverleaf athletes earn podium finishes at state track meet

Steppenbacker places fourth in pole vault, while Cloverleaf relay team finishes third in Division III

A group of softball players and coaches stand in front of a yellow school bus at night.

Cloverleaf coaches Rachel Schar, left, and Dave Freeland, right, join relay runners Adriana Akers, Samantha Porter, Lily Dluzinski and Kayla Shook, along with coaches Justin Vorhies and Garth Gucker, after the Colts placed third in the Division III 4x400-meter relay at the OHSAA state track and field championships.

Cloverleaf Athletics

Todd Stumpf Todd Stumpf Medina Weekly

Published June 9, 2026 - 9:29 a.m. Modified June 9, 2026 - 9:30 a.m.

Though the area and county have some heavyweights in the girls track department, Buckeye and Cloverleaf are pound-for-pound about as good as any of them. The two smaller schools showed that this past weekend at the OHSAA state track and field championships at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in Columbus.

Ellen Steppenbacker became her school's first girl in two decades to end a season on the state meet podium. The junior pole vaulter placed in a tie for fourth with a final effort of 12 feet. She matched the mark posted by Gracyn Harris of Celina. Mile Gelbart, a sophomore from Oakwood, won with a leap of 12-10, matching that of senior teammate Addie Kash but in fewer attempts.

Steppenbacker's effort was a personal best and more than a foot better than her best jump at regionals a week earlier.

Also in Division III, the Cloverleaf foursome of senior Kayla Shook, junior Samantha Porter and freshmen Adriana Akers and Lily Dluzinski had a stellar day with a third-place finish in the 4x400-meter relay final, which closed the Division III meet. The quartet finished in 3:55.67, more than seven seconds faster than in the preliminaries, when it finished in 4:02.05 to earn the final qualifying spot. Cloverleaf finished just 0.63 seconds behind runner-up Clear Fork, which was 1.5 seconds behind champion Ontario.

Shook ran the 16th-best time in the 400-meter dash preliminaries. She was an at-large state qualifier and entered the meet as a bit of an underdog.

In other girls state meet results:

A woman in running gear holds a race bib, medal, and yellow bag outside a building. — Highland junior Katie Schuler earned All-Ohio status with an eighth-place finish in Division II in the 3200-meter run. She also competed at state in the 1600.

Division II: Highland junior Katie Schuler finished her season on the awards podium in Division II, placing eighth in the 1,600-meter run to earn All-Ohio status in that event. Later in the day, Schuler competed in the 3,200-meter run and placed 17th.

Sophomore pole vaulter Bria Reidy cleared enough height to reach the podium, but her number of attempts left her in a tie for 10th place. Classmate Anna Coleman did not clear a height. The two Hornets were among eight sophomores to qualify in Division II, only one of whom placed higher than Reidy.

Two athletes pose together near a track and field stadium with spectators behind them. — Highland junior Celia Pylypiak placed 12th in the state in Division II in the 300-meter hurdles.

Junior Celia Pylypiak competed in the 300-meter hurdles and was less than a second away from making the podium. She finished 12th overall in a timed final. Some events were run as timed finals because of multiple storm delays on the first day of Division II competition, which wiped out some preliminary heats.

In the 4x800-meter relay, Pylypiak, fellow junior Madison Forshey, and freshmen Olivia Keough and Mary Cullen combined for a 17th-place finish.

Division I: Medina's girls had four athletes qualify in two events but did not advance anyone to a final. Junior Mariana Cunningham missed qualifying for the 200-meter dash final by one spot, placing 10th. Senior Brooke Diello qualified 15th in the same event. That pair, along with sophomore Macie Tighe and senior Michaela Gwinn, placed 14th in the 4x100-meter relay preliminaries.