Teays Valley senior track and field standout Katy Zang won’t compete this spring, coach Zach Frank said, citing precautionary measures for her future.
Zang was coming off a record-breaking indoor season, but the start of her outdoor season had been delayed as she rested after a busy fall and winter and recovered from a stress fracture in her right leg.
She had hoped to be ready for the Division II district meet May 19-23 at Hilliard Darby, the start of the OHSAA postseason. In a text to The Dispatch on April 29, Zang said she hopes to compete in two races in June, after the high school season, including the Under Armour Great Lakes Night of Stars on June 13 at Heidelberg University.
“We follow the recommendations of the doctors, what’s best overall for the kid,” Frank said. “We often talk here about how your four years spent here prepares you for the next 40 to 50, 60 years of your life. We try not to always look at short-term goals but understand what this part of the journey is – whether it’s an academic journey or an athletic journey – and how it prepares you for the rest of your life. (It’s) long term all the way.”
Zang can now focus on preparing for her freshman season at Indiana University.
“The goal is to have a great freshman season, hopefully a historic freshman season with as good as she’s shown she could be,” said Frank, who is Teays Valley’s girls cross-country and distance track coach.
Zang turned in three record wins this winter – the 3,200 meters at the Division I state meet (state-record 9:42.84) on March 6 at SPIRE Institute in Geneva and the 2-mile (national-record 9:37.15) and 1-mile (meet-record 4:35.02) at the New Balance indoor nationals March 13 in Boston.
That followed a first-place finish in the New Balance RunningLane XC Championships gold race (17:04.28) – the top event in the meet – on Dec. 6 in Huntsville, Alabama.
Zang finished fifth in the 3,200 (10:37.59) in the Division I state meet last spring.
High school sports reporter Frank DiRenna can be reached at fdirenna@dispatch.com and at @DispatchFrank on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Indiana signee Katy Zang to miss final Ohio high school track season