NLL, BVC track meets set for this week

FINDLAY – With the 2026 spring sports season winding down, track athletes from Findlay High and the Blanchard Valley Conference schools will be looking for high podium placements in league championship meets this week.The NLL meet gets underway in Napoleon today, with finals in the 3,200-meter relay and some field events, and several preliminary races. The finals will be Friday.The 2026 BVC meet will be held Friday in Ada.Findlay placed third in the boys competition and fourth among the girls teams in last year's league meet. All 11 NLL schools compete at the same time, with champions crowned in both the Buckeye and Cardinal divisions.Findlay will have a number of returning champions looking to repeat this year. Olivia Gayhart was the 2025 NLL champion in the high jump, and Neeti Barot and Lexi Steffen went 1-2 in the pole vault. All four members of the runner-up 800-meter relay are also back, with Gayhart, Josey Weihrauch, Mya Hammer, Anika Helms, Abanna Dotson, Gabby Brankamp, Kayla Moyer, Natalie Gutman and Katelynn Carpenter coming off top placings in last week's 1,600 and 3,200 relays at the Cooper Tire Invitational.Liberty-Benton has dominated the BVC track scene, winning 36 of the last 40 girls league titles and 31 of 33 boys championships since 1993. There has been a bit more diversity in recent years, with Van Buren winning the boys crown in 2022, and Van Buren taking the girls title in 2023 and Riverdale a year later.Meet results so far this spring indicate the girls meet could be extremely close. Freshman Alexis Geiser and sophomore Callie Hartman give Arlington an excellent chance to double up in the sprints and sprint relays, with Van Buren's Kami Bowman and Elmwood's Heavenlei Newson in the mix as well.Riverdale junior Marissa Bonham is already a two-time BVC champion in the 400 and a threat to place highly in anything from the 200 and 400 to the high jump, long jump and relays. Arcadia's Shia Watkins, a state qualifier last spring, and Van Buren's Easton Wymer, a state indoor champion in the shot, headline the throwers.In the boys meet, Liberty-Benton's Jackson Hochstettler and Arlington's Calvin Willow will be looking to complete their BVC careers unbeaten in their specialties.In a rare double, Hochstettler has won the 800 and 1,600 all three years he has run those events. Willow will be out to win a fourth straight BVC title in the high jump.L-B's Aiden Lee is the returning BVC champion in the 3,200 and was second to Hochstettler in the 1,600. McComb junior Carter Frater also won two events in 2025, the 110 hurdles and the long jump, where he edged Pandora-Gilboa's Ben Burkholder. Burkholder is also one of the top contenders in the pole vault where he place second last year to BVC record holder Stefan Kolan.