Columbus East’s Carsyn Schlehuser runs to victory in the 200 meters in Tuesday’s Columbus North Sectional. She is flanked by Columbus North’s Avery Johnson, left, and Lexi Denny.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
Columbus East principal Dr. Michael Parsons concluded Monday’s Senior Awards Program by recognizing four seniors that best represented a quality that began with the letters E, A, S and T.
The letter E stood for Enthusiastic Leadership, and that award went to Carsyn Schlehuser.
“Through her involvement in clubs, athletics, Student Assembly (student government), and more, she modeled strong servant leadership and helped strengthen the culture at East High School,” Parsons said.
Schlehuser has brought those traits to the Olympian girls track and field team the past four years.
“She’s one of my team captains, so she’s definitely one of the top leaders,” East coach Kareem Ash said. “Everybody follows her example. She’s been putting forward her best foot all year long.”
That especially was the case Tuesday night. Schlehuser won the 200 meters in 26.54 seconds at the Columbus North Sectional.
“I went into it and just worked really hard and just keep pushing myself every practice, and here we are,” Schlehuser said.
Schlehuser also finished third in the 100 and ran on the second-place 4×100 relay team, qualifying for regional in both of those events. She also had high jumped for most of this season, but did not do that event Tuesday.
“The main reason I took her out of the high jump was because I knew she had a big chance in the 200,” Ash said. “It worked out perfectly.”
This is the most events in which Schlehuser has qualified for regional.
“She got ill at the end of the season last year,” Ash said. “She took time to recover, and now she’s just giving me the best she can out of everything.”
Schlehuser’s competitive running career likely will be coming to an end in the next couple of weeks. She is planning to attend IU Indianapolis and become a dental hygenist.
Tuesday, Schlehuser will be one of several East, North, Hauser and Jennings County girls competing in the regional, which will begin at 6 p.m. at Bloomington North. The top three in each event qualify for the June 7 state finals, and she is seeded second in the 200.
“I’m thinking at regional, as long as I keep the same mindset like, ‘Run as hard as you can, keep working hard and stay focused, I think there’s a good chance,” Schlehuser said. “You just never know what kind of week someone’s having.”
