Indoor Track Wrap-Up

By Garrison Franks · Mar 10, 2025

In the peace and sunshine of May, athletes around the state will fly around the track; feeling fit, experienced, and ready to prove it. But this peak season success is the tip of an enormous iceberg of preparation built up through months of far less glamorous time on the track. As soon as fall sports come to an end and the view through the school windows becomes one of dreary snow, wind, and ice, Talawanda’s top track and field competitors begin gearing up for the next step. For these athletes, the months of December, January and February are long and lonesome ones spent out in these unforgiving conditions.

Winter weather makes training hard to get in, but athletes must make the most of what they have. On days when the roads and the track are snow covered or too frigid to bear, these runners can expect to find each other in the weight room or on Miami University’s treadmills and indoor track. But through whatever means necessary, these individuals build up their fitness and by the end of the winter are ready to test it out in the Indoor Track meets that Talawanda’s team provides the option for Track and Field participants to sign up for. 

While Indoor Track is not an official sport at Talawanda, it is a program that a small group of Talawanda Track and Field athletes take advantage of. This year, the program sent athletes to meets at Ohio colleges including Mount St. Joseph, Wittenberg, Cedarville, and Ohio State. Some competitors have made the trek to some of the region’s more prestigious meets, such as Louisville's Eastern Indoors, and later this month a few will even be headed to the New Balance Indoor Nationals held in Boston.

For Ohio schools, the sport has looked different this year. As of 2025, the Ohio Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches (OATCCC) has expanded Indoor Track from three highschool divisions into four. As a result of this addition, Talawanda has moved from Division I to Division II - an exciting change for the school’s program, as this has placed the team on a more even playing field and even provided several athletes with the opportunity to attend last Saturday’s Indoor State Meet. In fact, four Talawanda competitors qualified for this meet and represented the school this year at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio. Max Bixler and Adriana Luking each placed 4th in Division II for the 1600 meter run, Lucia Rodbro placed 4th in the 3200 meter run, and Nolan Hodgson placed 11th in the pole vault. These athletes have each brought years of dedication to the team and have been rewarded with impressive racing careers.

Senior distance runner Max Bixler this indoor season with a 4:26 mile, and throughout several more races progressed down to 4:24 — thus qualifying for the OATCCC Division II Indoor State Meet. At this meet, Bixler reached new levels once more and ended his indoor season with a lifetime best of 4:21.69 and a 4th place all-state finish. This personal record is also the top indoor 1600 time in Talawanda history. After finishing out this spring at Talawanda, Bixler plans to further pursue his athletic career by running Division I at North Carolina’s Elon University.

Another senior, Lucia Rodbro, has continued to represent Talawanda over a lengthy career in distance running. As a junior, Rodbro set the indoor school record in the 3200 with an impressive time of 10:59.39. This year, she has continued to pursue this event, and qualified for the Indoor State Meet where she placed 4th in Division II with a time of 11:01. Lucia will continue her own career next year as a Division I runner for the University of Miami in Florida.

Adriana Luking, a mere junior, also attended the Indoor State Meet after making huge strides throughout her highschool years. Luking raced several strong 1600s this winter, qualifying for the state meet with an indoor school record and 3-second personal best of 5:08 before further crushing this time with an astounding 5:04.71 which earned her 4th in Division II at the state meet. This mark not only broke the indoor mile record, but the outdoor track record as well — making it the fastest mile ever run by a Talawanda girl. Considering that Luking still has several seasons remaining as a runner for Talawanda, the future of her career — both at Talawanda and beyond — holds exciting potential.

This squad of distance runners was accompanied to the Indoor State Meet by pole vaulter Nolan Hodgson. The Junior has vaulted at several meets this winter, as well as laying down impressive sprint times of 24.66 in the 200 and 55.42 in the 400. Hodgson qualified for the state meet with a one inch personal best of 13-1, and reached further heights at this meet with a smashing 13-6. Hodgson has continued to be an indispensable figure on the team, as both a pole vaulter and a long sprinter. 

While these four qualifiers took the spotlight this winter, they were not the only notable contributors to Talawanda’s indoor effort. In fact, several other athletes scored indoor school records throughout the season. Colin O’Brien jumped 19-9 in the long jump, Clayton Bennett threw a 40-0 in the shot put, and a team of Colin O’Brien, Jason Frank, Oliver Bennett, and Nolan Hodgson flew through the finish line in 1:42.35 to break the record for the 4x200 meter relay. Talawanda has long been a powerhouse of distance runners, but these triumphs in varying field events and sprints have excited the possibility of a more well-rounded team overall. Building off of this progress, the team hopes to make a statement this spring at the final SWOC conference as well as sending several athletes to the Outdoor Regional and State Championships. Next year, Outdoor Track will be expanded from three highschool divisions into five, similar to the expansion of Indoor Track this year, and this will allow for even more exciting opportunities for Talawanda athletes to qualify for these meets and advance into the postseason.

As the spring progresses and outdoor season approaches, there’s an exceptional amount of potential for Talawanda coaches, athletes, and fans to look forward to. The team’s coaches hope to maximize the health, fitness, and prosperity of this talented team of individuals. In the meantime, these audiences can tune in for one final weekend of indoor competition as three of the team’s distance runners compete indoors at the national level before moving on to focus on this spring. Max Bixler will race the mile at Nike Indoor Nationals, Lucia Rodbro will race the  3200 at New Balance, and promising Freshman Fletcher Rodbro will race the mile at New Balance. Make sure to cheer on these athletes, as well as the rest of Talawanda’s Track and Field program, as they continue to thrive and push themselves through snow, rain, shine, and whatever else comes their way.