* Paige Floriea was incredibly dominant on Saturday at the OHSAA Track and Field Championships
Photo Credit: Shawn Conlon/Ohio MileSplit
You want to know how dominant Paige Floriea was on Saturday on the final day of the OHSAA Division I Track and Field Championships in Hilliard?
From a technical sense, the Mentor (OH) High School senior scored enough points to win the team title outright.
The University of North Carolina recruit secured wins in the 100m, 400m, long jump and 200m, helping the Cardinal to a state team title with 70 points overall.
In a lot of ways, her performance was reminiscent of Ohio all-timers like Abby Steiner, who won the sprint double in 2018, and Emily Infeld, who posted the mid-distance double in 2008.
But Floriea was a notch better than those two, becoming the third girls athlete to win the triple crown in state history and the first to do so in Ohio's highest classification. She was the 19th athlete in Ohio history to win four in one state championship performance, though according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, was the first do so without a relay.
The performance was legendary.
Ultimately, it came just a year removed from the canceled 2020 season, and two years out from a state meet where Floriea earned her first state title in the long jump, posting a mark of 19-9.75 in 2019.
Of course, though, this was no surprise.
There were high expectations for the Mentor standout. Floriea was among the favorite to win in many of her events.
But what stood out on Saturday was how strong she was across the board, scoring a winning leap of 19-10.25 (+1.0) in the long jump, which positioned the mark at US No. 6 overall -- though Floriea owned six over marks over 20-feet on the year, including a season best leap of 20-4.75.
On the track, she was rarely challenged.
In the 100m, Floriea was the only girl to break 12 seconds, going 11.93 (-1.6) despite less than ideal conditions.
In the 400m, she became the only Ohio athlete to dip under 55, hitting 54.25 seconds on the clock, nearly a full second ahead of teammate Emma Potter, who finished second.
Perhaps her hardest effort came in her final moment at the state championships;
On Friday, Floriea had come away with the second-fastest qualifying time in the prelims to Bedford's Kaira Granger.
It didn't take long over the first 100m, though, for Floriea to take over.
She finished three-tenths better than Granger at the finish, landing a performance of 24.17 (-1.5), which was just three hundredths of a second off her career best from the District Championships.
Ultimately, then, Floriea raised the bar when it was needed most.
Photo Credit: Shawn Conlon/Ohio MileSplit
