A high-school track athlete died in a tragic accident after his team won a cross-country race in Cambridge, Ohio, on Saturday.
Owen Grubb, 16, a member of the Minerva High School track and field team, finished 10th overall in Saturday’s race with a time of 17:26.05, with his team winning the event.
But Grubb died only hours after the event from injuries in a tragic accident that resulted from a celebration gone terribly wrong.
The Minerva team had a tradition of throwing a log into a creek near the school campus, according to a local Ohio paper, The Repository.
The Cambridge, Ohio, Police Dept. reports that several of the boys on the Minerva team searched for a log or branch to throw in the creek, but when unable to find one, they decided to try and topple a rotting tree that stood near the banks of the creek.
According to Capt. Dave Peoples, the four boys, began pushing the decaying tree, but “It fell in a direction that we think they didn’t expect.”
The witnesses said that as the tree began to fall, Grubb tried to jump aside, but the tree struck him in the head and killed him, the police capt. said, adding that it was “a tragic accident.”
Since the boy’s death, condolences have filled social media.
Former Caldwell High School coach and the OHSAA Eastern District Cross Country and Track and Field President Dugan Hill also lamented Grubb’s loss.
“The Eastern District Track and Cross Country Coaches extend their heartfelt thoughts and prayers to the entire Minerva cross-country family following the tragic accident that occurred at the District cross country meet yesterday,” he wrote.
Minerva head coach Olivia Scott said Grubb was among the school’s top five runners this season.
“He’s a great kid and a great teammate,” Scott said on Sunday. “Our girls and boys, our team, they’re brothers and sisters. The girls team is just as devastated as the boys team. Telling them last night is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.”
An obituary for the teen says he leaves behind his parents, two brothers, and two sisters.
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