Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Cardinal Mooney’s Tyon Flowers kick starts the Cardinals’ fifth-place finish in the Division III boys 4x400.

DAYTON — Injuries hampered what may have been an even better performance at the OHSAA state track and field meet by Cardinal Mooney’s boys 4×400 relay team. With little time to gel, the Cardinals finished the year with fifth-place in Division III’s grand finale.

Due to the “last-minute” nature of the team’s formation, expectations were fuzzy. Sophomore Dennis Clark said he had expected the team to finish in the top three, while senior Nick Pregibon, making his first state appearance, said he did not have “major expectations” for the 4×400 team, which also included junior Brayden Mahone and sophomore Tyon Flowers, since they had come together with only a few weeks left in the season.

But both agreed that injuries played a role in the team’s final result.

“In the beginning, there were lots of injuries – hamstrings, quads,” Pregibon said. Clark had said the team’s first leg and anchor had to switch to accommodate the injuries.

While seeded sixth, the team’s preliminary time of 3:29.07 was the slowest of the eight qualifying teams. Fortunately for the Cardinals, they were more than two seconds quicker in the finals, where they ran a 3:26.88 and narrowly missed out on fourth place.

Now, with a podium under their proverbial belts, a majority of the team will have even higher hopes for next year. The only member of the team who will not be returning is Pregibon, who joined Mooney’s track team as a senior “to try something new.”

“I’d been wanting to try it, but with basketball, it’s hard to do that in the springtime. And I got injured in soccer this year, my knee, so I just wanted to try to get something back out of it,” Pregibon said. “One last competitive thing before I go to college.”

While moving on, Pregibon said that he expects great things from Mooney’s 4×400 team over the next few years.

“They have the potential to win states, probably by the time they’re seniors,” Pregibon said. “This is already their second time running the state. So I want them to try to win next year. If not, they definitely have a really good chance to do it in their senior years.”

For Clark and the remaining Cardinals, gold is, indeed, the goal.

“We gave it our best and came up short of first place,” Clark said. “But we’re gonna keep working at it until we get there.”

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