The 800-meter run was good to Wellsville-Middletown’s Isaac Seabaugh last year.

Seabaugh had eight top-6 finishes in the event, including a first-place finish in the season-opening Montgomery County Early Invite and a sixth-place effort at the Class 1 state meet in Jefferson City.

“Last year was the year I kind of fell in love with the 800,” Seabaugh said.

After a month, the Wellsville-Middletown senior is still loving the 800. He finished in the top six in five meets, including a fourth-place finish with a season-best time of 2:11.40 at the Montgomery County Invitational on April 19.

“I love the 800,” Seabaugh said. “It’s my main event. I’m excited that it’s going well.”

Seabaugh finished with three medals at the Montgomery County meet. He also helped the 1,600 and 3,200-meter relay teams place sixth. Senior Keaton Mayes competed in both relay events, freshman Gage Marshall and junior Lucas Moore ran in the 4x400 and freshman Hunter Bickell and senior Layne Norris participated in the 4x800.

“I’m definitely happy with my performance today and my team’s performance,” Seabaugh said. “There are a lot of good things to look forward to. It’s really cool to get three medals, especially since it’s a big meet. There are a lot of schools here. It’s the biggest meet we’ve been to this year.”

Sophomore Bethany Slovensky finished with two medals for the Tigers in the girls division. She placed second in the triple jump with a season-best 32-3.75 and third in the 300-meter hurdles in 52.47 seconds.

W-M finished 10th in the boys division and 12th in the girls division. Both teams finished with 14 points.

In the 800, Seabaugh broke his previous-best time of 2:13.32 that was set at the season-opening Montgomery County Early Invite on March 22. He finished just two seconds behind first-place winner Colton Hearn of Bowling Green.
Seabaugh, who ran the anchor leg in both 4x400 and 4x800, said the Montgomery County Invitational will prepare his team for the Class 1 postseason meets later in the season.

“It will help us a lot,” the W-M senior said. “There are some athletes out there that you will never see in Class 1. It’s good to see those athletes running against those athletes in the level of competition. It really gets you ready for districts, sectionals and state. Basically, that’s where it matters.”

Seabaugh joined the W-M track team in his freshman year. That year, he competed in the 4x800 at the Class 1 state meet.

Seabaugh ran the 800 four times in the 2019 season. He came up one place short of qualifying for state in the 800, finishing fifth at sectionals.

“In my freshman year, I really wasn’t a fan of it because I was average in it,” Seabaugh said.

Seabaugh, whose sophomore season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, started his junior season with a 2:21 in his 800 victory at the Montgomery County Early Invite.

Then, Seabaugh’s times kept dropping from there. He ran a school-record time of 2:06.6 at sectionals to qualify for state. The next week at state, he broke his own school record, running a 2:05.62 to earn a spot on the podium.

This year, Seabaugh hopes to end his track career with another trip to Jefferson City. He competed in state in his two other sports – cross country and basketball – within the last five months.

“I want to go back,” Seabaugh said. “I want to finish in the top four or five. We’ll see how the season goes. Of course, I want to win it. But we’ll see what’s realistic, how my training will go and how my times will be looking within these next few meets. I have a lot of confidence and big goals set.”