Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. Salem’s Chaya Murray runs as the anchor leg of the Quakers’ 4x400 relay squad that earned eighth place, moments after receiving her gold medal for winning the 200 on Saturday in Columbus.

COLUMBUS — Following two weather delays on Saturday at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in Columbus, the OHSAA state track and field meet was perhaps the quickest it has ever been run.

It was so efficiently run that Chaya Murray was still standing atop the podium with her gold medal when the electronic starting gun for the girls 4×400 went off. The Salem freshman bolted off the podium and entered the waiting area on the track as the anchor leg of the Quakers’ 4×400 squad.

It summed up an imperfect day that saw Murray claim the Division III girls 200 state title with a new personal-best time of 24.52, before placing again in the 4×400 to help Salem take eighth place with a 3:59.36, alongside Abby Knickerbocker, Laura Hovorka and Karlie Sampson.

“Never,” Murray said with a laugh about whether she ever had an event start while still receiving an award. “I was like, oh no, I want to get on the podium and get my picture, but I gotta run. I was like this is crazy.”

Winning gold as a freshman isn’t an easy task, especially after a slew of delays.

“I just told myself that I can do anything that I put my mind to, and that I’ve worked so hard and that I had a great opportunity and chance to become a state champion, and I did so,” Murray said. “I think [the 200] is just the perfect race, you can do so much and you can do anything in the amount of meters that you have.

“The recovery definitely seemed very slow, but I just went out there [in the 4×400]. It was my last race with my senior friends, and we all just did so great and I’m very proud of our team.”

She was confident that she was first going into the backstretch, although she just focused on herself.

“Sometimes you can hear their footsteps or their breathing, but sometimes you’re so dialed in that you don’t hear anything,” Murray said.

Earlier on in the day, Murray anchored Salem’s 4×100 team with Sampson, Knickerbocker and Angeline Hoffaker for a fifth place finish, clocking a time of 49.21.

The Division III meet was run with haste, starting around 9:00 p.m., following the seated 400 and the 3200 Division II events. Another storm was threatening on the horizon late Saturday that kept the pressure on to finish the Division III meet.

“I don’t think the weather affected it at all. It definitely was sad that it all got pushed back, but it was a great opportunity that we got to run under the lights. It was such a cool experience,” Murray said. “I just relaxed and had fun [during the weather break] with the time that we got and got dialed in for the race. Right now, it’s past my bedtime, but that’s alright because I had so much fun.”

Salem had a large slew of athletes qualify for the state meet.

“It is so special because seeing everyone down here is such an amazing feeling. Having the team is such a special moment and it’s so great to have them all with us,” Murray said.

Also earning hardware for Salem over the weekend were the high jump duo of Madolyn Gorby (third, 5-05 feet) and Peyton Colbert (fifth, 5-02 feet), as well as Lucas Adams (fourth in the long jump, 23-04 feet, and eighth in the high jump 6-04 feet).