Ansonia’s Shellhaas earns State Championship

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COLUMBUS – Ansonia’s Brock Shellhaas won the OHSAA Division III pole vault championship with a jump of 15’5” outdistancing second place finisher Alex Mutchler of Ayersville’s Colonel Crawford with a second place 14’8” finish after a disappointing 2019 season.

“The regular season didn’t go how I wanted it to,” said Shellhaas. “I knew one meet that I really, really wanted from the beginning of the year was this meet and this meet can wash away a bad season.”

“It’s been a long season, we’ve struggled, we’ve had our ups and downs,” said Ansonia pole vault coach and father of Brock, Steve Shellhaas. “I told him, ‘all the season, no matter what you did, you come here today and you have a good day, everything else is forgotten’ and he did.”

“We didn’t have the best warmup – we didn’t win warmups,” added Coach Shellhaas. “A lot of people think, ‘oh that guy looks good’ – we weren’t that guy but he did it. He put his head down, he battled through and we came out on top. God is good – it was a good day.”

Shellhaas bettered his 2018 fifth place 14’4” jump at State reaching the podium his sophomore year.

The Friday afternoon event turned into a nighttime event brought on by a three hour lightning and rain delay bringing memories of the 2018 state meet that included a two hour delay and a pulled hamstring competing in the pole vault.

“I really wanted to bounce back,” Shellhaas said of the 2018 results. “I know God healed me up and got me back healthy for a reason and to go through another rain delay and to endure everything I did last year – but to come out on top it’s really special.”

“Last year we did the same thing,” said Coach Shellhaas. “We had a two hour rain delay. After he came back from the two hour rain delay last year he tore his hamstring so there was some stuff in his brain because the same thing happened last year. When you have to battle through that mental aspect part of it, sitting around for three hours, sitting, getting wet, coming back here and warming up again and having to jump again – we’ll take it.”

Ansonia junior Brock Shellhaas stands atop the OHSAA Division III boys pole vault podium with 2019 State Championship.
https://www.dailyadvocate.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/web1_8-Inch-Brock-Shellhaas.jpgAnsonia junior Brock Shellhaas stands atop the OHSAA Division III boys pole vault podium with 2019 State Championship.

By Gaylen Blosser

DarkeCountyMedia.com

Contact Sports Editor Gaylen Blosser at [email protected] or (937) 853-6390-Ext. 1751. Read more news, features and sports a DarkeCountyMedia.com.

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