Shelby 4x8’s win, advance to state
By CHUCK RIDENOUR Daily Globe Sports Editor
LEXINGTON — Weather was the ultimate winner Thursday evening for the opening day of Division II Regional track and field competition at Lexington High School.
Rain forced postponement of the remaining qualifying after completion of the girls 4 x 100 meter relay.
What scheduled qualifying did not take place will now a timed final on Saturday. The top four finishers in each event advance to the state meet.
Before the rain put an end to the day, Shelby qualified two relays and a pair of individuals to next week’s state meet at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium on the campus of Ohio State University in Columbus.
Both Shelby foursomes were also triumphant in the 4 x 800-meter.
Reyna Hoffman, Channon Cundiff, Emma Montgomery and Kayla Gonzales pared nearly 11 seconds off their district time from last week with a winning clocking of 9:41.92. They held off Gates Mill Gimour Academy which had the top time coming in and finished second with 9:44.67.
The Whippet boys entered their 4 x 800 run with the top district time and chopped off close to seven seconds off their time from a week ago as Luke Dininger, Huck Finnegan, Mason Hendrickson and Marshall Moore won with 8:04.77. Right behind the were Huron (8:06.85) and Sandusky Perkins (8:08.19).
“I was very happy the 4 x 8 win. It was nice to have the girls win too. This is the first time our boys and girls won the 4 x 8 in the same year,” said boys coach Chris Zuercher.
Also earning spots in the upcoming state meet were pole vaulter Garrett Baker and long jumper Connor Henkel. The latter is a two-time state qualifier.
The pole vault was not completed due to the rain and Baker was one of two vaulters in the event. The current height was 14-6. He was a 100-meter dash qualifier and opted not to race.
Henkel placed third in the long jump with a best of 21-7 3/4. He trailed Collin Nemitz of Sandusky Perkins at 23-1 3/4 and Ayden Bath of Vermilion at 22-11. Teammate Andre Hill was tenth with a leap of 19-11 1/2.
“Connor was clutch in the long jump. He had to pop a big jump in the finals to make it to state. Garrett will make it to state and is one of two vaulters left that will finish Saturday,” said Zuercher.
SHS sprinters Olivia Barnard and Ava Bowman had the 14th and 15th quickest times in the 100-meter dash preliminaries of 13.20 and 13.24, respectively, and did not reach the finals.
Shelby’s 4 x 200 and 4 x 100 relays did not advance to the finals. Serena Ramsey, Bowman, Tessa Slone and Alainah Carmel ran 15th with 1:53.42. The foursome of Barnard, Carmel, Stone and Bowman were 12th in qualifying with 52.84.
The boys pole vault will be completed Saturday beginning at 9:30 a.m. The remainder of the field events which were scheduled for Saturday will begin at 11 a.m. and the running finals will start at 12:30 p.m.
Competitors today for the red and gray include: Trae Smith in the boys 200, Moore in the boys 800, Dininger in the boys 1,600, Finnegan in the 3,200, Hendrickson in the boys 3,200, Xander Wilkins in the shot put, Carmel in the girls 200, Hoffman in the girls 800, Cundiff in the girls 800 and Gonzales in the girls 1,600.