Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Ursuline junior Devonte Taylor takes the baton from sophomore Amire Brown as the Fighting Irish earned eighth during the Division II boys 4x100-meter relay with a time of 42.77 seconds.

COLUMBUS — The road to the awards area wasn’t the smoothest, but sometimes track and field just has a way of working itself out. Last season at the regional round, Ursuline’s boys 4×100-meter relay group dropped the baton, keeping that very baton and using it as a tool during practices over the past year.

This year at state, they pushed themselves into the Division II finals, making the cut by 0.12 seconds over Perry. Going into the race on Saturday, there was nothing left to lose. The Fighting Irish took the opportunity presented to them, taking eighth place with a time of 42.77 seconds to see the view from the podium.

Senior Tairan Davis, juniors Xavier Starghill, Devonte Taylor and sophomore Amire Brown were excited to walk away from Columbus with some hardware.

As the lone senior, Davis relished the chance to finally place at state.

“I took it with a grain of salt, everybody is here to compete, everybody’s good at the state track meet, so you have to bring it,” Davis said. “I looked at it like it’s “stadium pulse” in the NCAA video game, so it’s a feeling (here).

“We saw that we were ninth place, we obviously knew that we could do better. Hand-offs weren’t the best, take-offs weren’t the best, but we just had to clean it up and we knew we could make it to the podium.”

During the prelims on Friday, the Fighting Irish set a school record at 42.83 seconds, besting that record-setting mark by 0.06 during the finals.

“We used that as motivation. It makes me very proud, more importantly proud of these guys because I feel like they’re going to break it again next year.” Davis said.

Brown said the team did everything it “needed to do” to earn a medal.

This fuels me a lot,” Brown said. “Basically this fuels me to know that there’s different competitors around here that we can overcome … makes us do better, run faster.”

Starghill made the regional finals in the 110-meter hurdles and the 300 hurdles, but having a state-podium finish will provide some confidence going into his senior season.

He said his start to was key during his leg in Columbus, knowing the pressure it takes.

“There’s a little bit knowing that my starts aren’t the best, so I knew I’d have to go out of there. I felt good with my start today,” Sharghill said. “It felt good knowing that our hand-offs are good, and we ended up on the podium.

“It’s all we wanted. We wanted to make it to state after what happened last year, so we had to make it. I know we’re able to compete with others that are faster and longer runners.”

Taylor was the anchor of the group, enjoying the chance to bring home the podium-worthy run.

“It feels good knowing that we can come back here again next year, almost with the full team and make it again,” Taylor said. “We just barely (made the finals), so that put an even bigger chip on our shoulders to make it past that.

“I know my teammates, they run fast. I know they got me, so they put their trust in me to run fast. There’s thousands of people here to give us cheers and stuff just to run faster, it feels really good.”

Ursuline senior Brooklyn Woods competed in the girls shot put, earning 16th with a mark of 37-3 feet. Woods was one of the two “at-large” qualifiers in the event, coming into Columbus after breaking her own school record with a 39-1.50 feet at regionals.