Zets had teammate on her mind as she captured state 800 run

By Pete Mollica

COLUMBUS — West Branch High junior Emilee Zets often thinks about her teammate Ryan Jones, especially when she’s running on the track.

Saturday Zets had Jones, who died earlier this year after running in a track event, on her mind and it may have even helped her to win the Division II 800 meters at the state championships at Jesse Owens Stadium.

Zets ran a time of 2 minutes, 16.23 seconds, to take the state crown.

“He [Jones] ran the first leg of the 4x800 meter relay for the boys and I run the first leg for the girls so we were really close and worked out a lot together,” Zets said.

“I thought about him today, he’s always on our minds and we miss him,” she added.

Zets said that she didn’t do a whole lot of things differently in her state victory.

“I didn’t expect her [Kettering Alter’s Catherine Crisler] to jump out as quickly as she did, but I waited until the right time and then made my move past her and just held on to win,” Zets added.

“It’s exciting to win here, it’s something that I’ll always remember,” she added. “I was fourth here last year and I learned a lot and hopefully I can come back next year and defend my title.”

Crisler gave Zets all she could handle finishing a close second in 2:16.61 seconds.

“I could see her out of the corner of my eye coming on at the end, but fortunately I had enough left to hold her off,” Zets added.

mollica@vindy.com