Kevin Brown waited 398 meters for an opening. As the anchor of Lancaster's 1,600-meter relay team, Brown was the Gales' last chance at catching Gahanna Lincoln at Saturday's Ohio Capital Conference-Ohio Division championships.

So when Tyler Chandler, Gahanna's anchor, appeared to slow just ahead of the finish line Saturday, Brown pounced.

"I knew the kid," Brown said. "I knew he would try to showboat his way across the line, and I just told myself 'If he gives up and I don't give up, I'm going to cross the line before he does.'"

The last-second kick allowed Lancaster to sneak past the Golden Lions by seven-hundreths of a second and claim victory in the event.

The victory also sent the Gales to a second-place finish behind Pickerington North in the final team standings. Lancaster edged third-place Gahanna by a point.

"We're on top of the world," Brown said. "We're so much better than last year. It's been such a turnaround. It's been great."

The thrilling finished capped what had been a solid two-day competition by the Gales. Lancaster had a 10-point lead against Gahanna after Thursday's field event finals and preliminaries.

Nathan Cheek, Derek Kline and Kevin Miller combined to take the top three spots in the shot put Thursday, and Cheek continued his success in the discus Saturday. His toss of 148 feet, 11 inches was good for first place. Kline took fourth (134-10).

"We were looking to score a lot of points in the throws," Cheek said. "We've got a pretty solid team this year, a lot better than in the past few years, so we're going for it all."

On the track, Pickerington North dominated while Lancaster and Gahanna battled for second place.

The Gales' Brannon Kidder had a hand in three wins during the course of the two-day meet. He anchored the winning 3,200 relay team, ran the third leg on the 1,600 relay team and won the 1,600 run.

He set an OCC-Ohio championship meet record in the 1,600 after finishing in 4:15.71. He also finished second in the 800 (1:55.25) behind Gahanna's Harry McFann.

"He's a pleasure to coach," Gales coach Jeff Koksal said. "There's two parts to being coachable. One is being willing to listen, and the other is the ability to execute. Once we set out a plan for him, whether it's his training plan or his race plan, he's able to execute that plan."

A handful of second-place finishes helped Lancaster keep pace with the Lions all day. Brown was second in the 400, Nolan Flowers in the 110 hurdles, Stephen Hood in the 300 hurdles and the 400 relay team of Nathan Carpenter, Connor Smith, Flowers and Raheem Kerens took second.

"It's a plus and a minus, but I believe the three best teams in the region are here in the OCC-Ohio," Koksal said. "There will be some other teams that will dispute that, but I was proud of the way our guys competed. We fought hard, and we scored at or above where I thought we would in every event.

"We have three more weeks left, and that's a good feeling. To be sitting here in this position with the possibility of having several guys running for three more weeks, it's nice."

LANCASTER GIRLS TAKE FIFTH

The Gales' girls track team finished exactly where coach John Zishka thought they would. Lancaster wasn't strong enough to overtake powers Gahanna, Reynoldsburg and Pickerington Central, but the Gales managed respectable finishes in a handful of events.

"Fifth is about where I put us," Zishka said. "The kids did well to meet expectations there."

Karissa Conrad took second in both the 100 hurdles (16.03) and the 300 hurdles (44.20).

"She was obviously the athlete of our meet (Saturday)," Zishka said. "She made four finals and scored in all of those. Her time in the 300 (hurdles) is getting up there on our all-time list."

Zishka was encouraged by several personal bests set by individuals and relay teams. Jeylan Turkoglu topped her personal record in the 1,600 by 10 seconds, and the 400, 800 and 1,600 relay teams each set seasonal bests Saturday.

"The kids understand that it's time to step up, and top to bottom, I think they did that," Zishka said.