State track meet headed to Dayton

The Ohio High School Athletic Association has announced that the 2024 state track and field meet will be held at Welcome Stadium in Dayton. The track at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium at The Ohio State University will be removed in May and replaced with a new track that will take several months to complete. Welcome Stadium hosted state from 1999-2003 after the track was removed from Ohio Stadium in Columbus. Dayton Public Schools recently completed a $34 million renovation project at Welcome Stadium that included a new track, football field, press box, concourse and locker rooms. The meet will return to Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium in 2025 and 2026 to complete the current three-year contract. Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium has hosted the state tournament since 2004, with the exceptions of 2020, when the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and 2021, when each division was held at a high school in central Ohio. "We are excited and honored to be hosting the 2024 state track tournament at Welcome Stadium," Dayton Public Schools interim superintendent Dr. David Lawrence said. "The district and community have invested a lot into the stadium renovation project, and it is rewarding to now be hosting a state tournament as a result of those efforts. As a former participant in the state track meet and avid fan of track and field, it brings great joy to host the meet in our newly renovated and state-of-the-art facility." The state meet is scheduled for May 31 and June 1. "We are very impressed with the renovations at Welcome Stadium," OHSAA executive director Doug Ute said. "It's great to see what Dayton Public Schools has done to the facility, and they were very excited right away when we called. We are fortunate that the timing of these construction projects lined up so that Welcome Stadium was ready to host before Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium was unavailable."