Senior Cassidy Shimp still thinks about it every day.  

After she and the other three members of the Olentangy Orange girls track and field team’s 400-meter relay ran the best time during the preliminaries at last year’s Division I state meet, they followed the next day by running 47.55 seconds to edge Gahanna Lincoln (47.91) for the championship. 

“I’ll never forget it,” Shimp said. “It was amazing, definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience.” 

Reaching that pinnacle, though, wasn’t something that happened overnight. 

For sprinters like Shimp, peaking for the biggest meets of the spring outdoor season began months before this year’s state meet will be held June 2-3 at Ohio State. 

At the state indoor meet March 4 at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Westerville Central junior Olivia Pace won the 60 (7.38), Gahanna senior Amryne Chilton captured the 400 (56.51) and the Lions won the 800 relay (1:38.81) and 1,600 relay (3:55.65). 

Gahanna scored 62 points to capture the team title, with Westerville Central placing third (39.5) and Orange finishing fifth (28). 

The indoor season is considered a springboard for what some consider a more important outdoor season, but the process of getting ready can vary based on the distances runners typically train for. 

“We try to build off the winter,” Warhawks coach David Mentlow said. “Winter is great, but at the end of the day, everybody is working toward outdoor. We’re working on improving each week. It could be starts. It could be finishes. We want to make sure we’re focusing each week of the season. Everyone peaks and works toward peaking and everybody is working toward June. We always work with that goal in mind.” 

One of the biggest factors in preparing for the outdoor season has to do with the weather. 

While distance runners often continue to train outside during colder conditions, sprinters often are treated with what Lions coach Roger Whittaker calls “kid gloves.” 

Whittaker has one of the nation’s top hurdlers in senior Camden Bentley, a Kentucky signee, but as usual, also has a large group of strong sprinters to build what he hopes is another state championship outdoor team this spring. 

The Lions scored 47 points to capture their third outdoor state title last spring, with the Warhawks earning the runner-up trophy with 31. 

In addition to Chilton and Bentley, Gahanna is hoping to return one of the state’s top sprinters in senior Ayanna Stafford, who has been out with injury since the middle of the indoor season. 

While Stafford’s status going forward is unclear after she finished third (11.8) in the 100 at last year’s state outdoor meet and Pace was runner-up (11.71), junior Keena Sanders should be one of central Ohio’s top 200 runners and freshman Aliyah Bennett also figures to make an impact. 

“Weather has everything to do with (how we prepare sprinters) because of their muscles,” Whittaker said. “You’ve got to really be careful with them. The key is in May. This is more of a training front. These girls and how amazing they are, it’s really about taking care of their health early on because if you’re not healthy in May, you don’t have anything. With sprinters, you don’t want to have a whole bunch of volume early on, it’s more of just training and doing little things just to keep them sharp.” 

Chilton has signed with Kent State and senior Daisha Decree, who won the state indoor title in the long jump, has committed to Youngstown State to join Bentley as other key seniors for the Lions.