Just an ordinary day for Callie

• Her 4X100 team will be competing for a shot to take the trip to Columbus.
• Ruffener knows that the rough N10 regular season has prepared her for a run at a State Title.
• Ruffener took the gold at the district meet with her 10-6 mark, a foot higher than the runner-up.
• She vaulted to 11-04 in last year’s State Meet for a fourth place finish.

Colonel Crawford junior Callie Ruffener’s day was not out of the ordinary on Wednesday evening at Fairfield-Union High School in Lancaster. The Division III regional track meet saw a familiar face in three events and will see it again in another on Friday.

Ruffener qualified for regional in four different events, the running the 100, 200, and 4x100 relay Wednesday. After her final event, the first thing she did was unlace her spikes and kick them off.

“I have no clue where I get the energy from. Part of it is I know that when I run the relays, I have three other girls counting on me and I just want what is best for them and I give it all I have for them,” Ruffener said.

Her busy day started with the 100 in which she ran the sprint in 13.35 second. In the 200 she finished in 28.10. Neither was good enough to advance to Day 2, though. Her 4x100 team, however, will be competing for a shot to take the trip to Columbus. The team of Ruffener, junior Alyssa Spears and sophomores Kristen Verhes and Sam Mutchler ran a time of 52.47 in the second heat of the event. The second place heat finish got them to the finals.

But, Day 2 is Ruffener’s big day with her specialty, the pole vault. Shw as fourth at state last year and is the favorite to take the gold in the event on Friday. Her 10-foot-6 seed mark is six inches higher than the next highest. Ruffener knows that the rough N10 regular season has prepared her for a run at a state title.

“I just have to hope to clear the bar. The N10 was a very good experience for me. I will just take it one bar at a time and hopefully make it to state again,” Ruffener added.

Ruffener took the gold at the district meet, vaulting a foot higher than the runner up. At the Bob Royer Relays earlier in the year, Ruffener was locked in a battle with Galion freshman Marisa Gwinner until Ruffener cleared the 11-foot mark to take the first place finish. She vaulted to 11-4 in last year’s state meet for a fourth place finish. She placed sixth as a freshman.