Western Brown High School senior Dane Tomlin was recently named the boys Southern Buckeye Athletic and Academic Conference American Division Field Event Person of the Year.
Western Brown High School freshman Brayden Dill was recently named the boys Southern Buckeye Athletic and Academic Conference American Division Runner of the Year. Photo: Western Brown High School
The Western Brown High School track and field team has a lot to look forward to in coming years.
The view in the rearview mirror isn’t too bad, either.
The track at Western Brown will get a new surface this summer. And, with a girls team that has won three consecutive league titles and a boys squad that is deep in young talent, the hope is that both programs will continue to build on recent successes.
That bar will be set high after the 2023 season.
Western Brown swept top individual boys honors and had the girls coach of the year as the Southern Buckeye Athletic and Academic Conference track and field teams were announced recently.
“On the boys side, we were very young. This, coupled with a very tough D1 schedule, made a for a rollercoaster of a season,” Broncos boys coach Chad Sexton said. “We were able to get some young and upcoming athletes some key experience that they might not normally get, which will pay off big in the future.”
Individually, Western Brown freshman Brayden Dill was named American Division Runner of the Year – he earned the same honor in cross country in the fall – and senior Dane Tomlin was Field Event Person of the Year.
“Dane has been a great asset to our team, especially after he essentially learned and started throwing discus this season,” Sexton said. “We will be sad to lose him.”
Despite being relatively new to the discus, Tomlin had the third-best effort in the conference in 2023 at 127 feet, 10 inches. He was tops in the shot put by nearly a foot at 48-5.5.
Meanwhile, Dill had the fastest time in the conference in the 1,600 and 3,200 meters at 4:40 and 10:23, respectively, and the seventh-best time in the 800 at 2:11.10.
“Brayden is a true talent,” Sexton said. “He works hard to get better, and it will be awesome to see him continue to grow and develop as he is only a freshman. To win SBAAC Runner of the Year in cross country and track is an amazing accomplishment.”
Three Broncos also made the all-SBAAC American Division second team: junior Ethan Burneson, sophomore Jude Woodruff, and freshman Hunter Saylor.
On the girls side, Western Brown’s Mark Abbinante was named Coach of the Year – for the third year in a row – and five Lady Broncos made the first team: seniors Sierra Elam and Tiana Roland and juniors Cassidy Armstrong, Alyssa Campbell and Natalie Rice.
The Lady Broncos also had four second-teamers: juniors Olivia Fischer and Lacey Patten and sophomores Christina Frye and Makayla Kyle.
“It’s an honor to be the coach of the year for the season as well as for the last two seasons,” Abbinante said. “But I can’t take all the credit, that’s for sure. If not for the coaching staff and the lady athletes that work hard, I wouldn’t be the coach of the year. This year we beat tough teams and scored a lot of points in meets.”
In the National Division, six Georgetown High School athletes were named to the first team, led by senior Alex Underwood, who recently placed sixth in the 110-meter hurdles at the Ohio High School Athletic Association State Track and Field Tournament in Columbus.
Underwood was joined on the first team by teammates Carson Miles, a senior who was 10th in the state meet in the high jump, and fellow G-Men seniors Aaron Riddle and Mason Williams and juniors Jacob Faught and Gideon Klump.
G-Men on the second team were senior Clayton Caldwell and junior Trevor Ellis.
For the Lady G-Men, senior Olivia Henson and sophomores Elizabeth Cahall, Lelia Gullett, Ariel Riddle, and Erin Stansberry made the first team and freshman Lydia Klump was a second-teamer.
