Beaver Local's Luke Warrick heads into the state meet with a school record time in the 800 as well the 1600 relay. (Photo by Ron Firth)

CALCUTTA — Beaver Local junior Luke Warrick knows he has a chance at landing on the podium in the 800-meter run on Saturday at the Div. III state track meet at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.

He also knows it’s going to take his best effort.

“I bet it will take like a low 1:54 or 1:53-ish race is where I say you need to be,” Warrick said. “So, I have a decent shot if I push myself for a (personal record), I think I can get it.”

Warrick comes into the state track meet as the 11th seed with his personal-best and school-record time of 1:55.29 ran at the New Concord regional on Saturday. He finished sixth there, but did enough to earn an at-large spot in the meet as only the top five finishers automatically qualified. In Warrick’s case, the top three times going into the state meet came from the New Concord meet.

“I knew I had a big race and there was a lot of competitive times so I was just excited to compete and try to get a PR and I just ended up being in the sixth spot and was able to make state so I was really happy about that,” Warrick said.

Beaver Local track coach Derrick Stickles isn’t surprised at how well Warrick has done. He said he’s as reliable as they come.

“He’s one of the leaders of our program,” Stickles said. “He’s one of those guys that does everything the way it’s supposed to be done. He shows up to practice every day on time. He works his butt off and is willing to do extra after practice. He’s always trying to find a way to make himself better.”

London senior Cameron Carn has the top seed going into state with a 1:51.66. He’s followed by Bidwell River Valley’s Jansyn Smith (1:52.7) and Bishop Hartley’s Rowan Smith (1:52.82). All competed in the New Concord regional with Warrick.

“My end of the season goal was 1:54 and I’m pretty close to that now,” Warrick said. “I’m really excited for state to see if I can get my mark.”

Warrick said he will have a good interval workout today and then taper down in the days after to prepare for state.

Warrick said that during the season he doesn’t really have anyone on the team to push his in distance racing, so he said he’ll sometimes go practice with East Liverpool senior Maddox Roach, who will be running for the 1600 Div. III state championship on Saturday, or Beaver Local graduate Jeremiah Moore. Coach Dan Kinsey, who has a lot of experience at elite levels of the sport, chips in when he can.

The 800 won’t be Warrick’s only focus at the state meet. He’ll join Zachary Redman, Luke Rettos and Nolan Irving in the 1600 relay. This Beaver team owns the school record in the event with a 3:24.96 time set at regionals. The old record was 3:25.8 set in 1997.

“We kept three of the same guys from last year and added Rettos,” Warrick said. “We knew what he was capable of in adding a new leg to our relay. So we really pushed to try and get the school record this year. Last race we ended up beating it.”

The Beavers are seeded seventh coming into the meet. The team will run prelims at 12:35 p.m. Friday and it hopes it will be back on Saturday for the final.

“Whenever it’s time to compete those kids show up to compete,” Stickles said. “They’re great competitors. They want a challenge and are constantly talking about ways to shave times.”

Warrick attributes the relay team’s success to the discipline and camaraderie the team has.

“It’s just a special bond and we just knew we were capable of it from the start,” Warrick said.

Only the top five at regionals made it to state and the Beavers were seeded seventh at the regional. It took a big jump to get to the fourth place finish they had at regional.

“It was a big surprise for us and we were really glad it happened,” Warrick said.

Warrick said the early season didn’t go so great as the team was routinely turning in times around 3:30.

“We were concerned at first that we were not improving then we had tapered down and starting peaking at the right time,” Warrick said. “Our times really started to show that we were actually putting in the work for something that was paying off.”

Warrick thinks the team can get under 3:24.

“I think all of us are capable of running a 50-point split and some of us maybe even a sub-50 split. We can definitely go under 3:24 and if not a couple seconds lower than that,” Warrick said.

Stickles said Warrick is just one of the many talented underclassmen on this team and he thinks there will be a big uptick in Beavers going to the state meets because of athletes like Warrick and those coming up.

“I’m looking forward to the future of Beaver Local track,” Stickles said. “If we continue to work hard we’re going to continue to qualify a lot of guys to state.”