MILWAUKEE — Campebellsport High School senior athlete Josh Owunili joined Wisconsin’s Midday News Monday to talk about his journey from almost not being able to race in the final track meets of his high school career to winning two first place Division II titles at the WIAA state track meet in LaCrosse.
The WIAA initially ruled Owunili wasn’t eligible to run because both of his parents were not living in the designated area of the school he attended–his parents were both working as missionaries in Africa. Although his mother did return to the U.S., his father was not able to return yet because there were problems with his visa. The WIAA made the ruling before the regional track event that begins the journey to the state championships.
Owunili told WTMJ his Campbellsport High School Track and Field Coach, Derek Toshner, decided to post on Facebook about Owunili’s situation to see what he could do to help.
“[He did it] so he could bring some awareness to my running and hopefully get some colleges to look at me. [Then], everybody started picking up the story, and it just went viral and the news got involved,” he said. “Apparently, there’s enough politicians and people rooting for me that the WIAA was able to overturn the situation.”
The WIAA overturned their decision on May 20th, the Friday before Regionals began, and Owunili was able to run the final track meets of his high school career.
“It’s been crazy,” he said. “And then running at regionals, sectionals, and state… absolutely wild.”
Owunili eventually advanced to state where he won two first place state titles in the 100 and 200 meter dashes. He said the experience felt incredible.
“Crossing the finish line… I just smiled after my 200, which was the last race,” he said. “It feels fantastic–them putting the medal around [me]. It was just a team effort. There was so much that went into it on my part, then way more that went into it on everyone else’s part.”
He said that when it was time to run, he didn’t feel much pressure even with the problems he faced beforehand.
“I knew there was a lot of pressure and a lot of people watching, but I kind of just had confidence. I love running. This is what I love to do. Let me just focus on what I want to do,” he said. “God kind of took the pressure off of my shoulders. It was just quiet… when I was running, it was just quiet. So, it was a lot easier.”
In Josh Owunili’s final state track meet, he clocked in a 10.3 second finish in the 100 meter dash.
“I love this,” he said. “I love all the running. It was so much fun.”
Owunili also spoke on how he felt about the rule that almost didn’t allow him to run.
“The rule… just seems it wasn’t implemented properly. I understand the reason for the rule: to prevent high schools from stacking their teams… but it just didn’t seem like it was helping in this situation,” he said. “With the publicity that came from my situation, I’ve heard a lot of other stories of other people and how this rule has ruined their high school careers or their sports [careers] for years.”
He said that even if he didn’t get cleared to run, he hopes that: “they’ll review the rule or rewrite the rule, so [the WIAA] can look at it case by case and understand the situations [of each student-athlete.]”
He said that even though this was only his first year running track, he plans to pursue running track in college, which he already has some experience in doing. Owunili’s coach had him run in a Junior Varsity meet then a college track meet at UW-LaCrosse while he was waiting to be eligible to run again.
“Going from a JV meet to a college meet was a crazy step up. The competition was a lot more difficult,” he said. “I ran my fastest times at the college meet… I knew I had to do really well. It was quite intimidating, but it was a blast.”
He said he’ll spend the summer looking at different colleges to run track at for the next step of his career.
