Northeastern junior Megan Simpson advanced to Columbus for the first time in her last race, placing third in the 200-meter dash in a school-record time of 26.09 seconds.
“I’ve worked hard for it,” Simpson said. “It’s been my goal since the end of last season. I’m pretty proud.”
The top four athletes in each event qualify for state, and Simpson placed fifth in her first race of the day, the 100. She trailed the fourth-place finisher by .12 seconds.
In the 400 relay, Simpson took the baton for the final leg, but the Jets were already out of the running. They were in third place when Dacia Phillips fell while handing the baton to Hannah Rolf, who didn’t see the stumble and had to retreat to get the baton. The Jets ended up finishing sixth.
“She just overstrided,” said coach Dan Phillips, Dacia’s dad. “The second team dropped their baton, too, so we probably would have been top two. That’s a tough way to go.”
The Northeastern girls had one other state qualifier: Junior Ashlen Lockwood placed fourth in the shot put (36-10¼).
The only individual regional champion from the area was Urbana senior Kaley Moss, who won the pole vault with a height of 11 feet. Moss also advanced to state with second-place finishes in the 100 (15.17) and 300 hurdles (44.43).
Urbana finished third overall as a team, thanks mostly to Moss.
“It’s a great feeling,” Moss said. “I’ve worked hard all year. I just love vaulting. It was icing on the cake.”
After qualifying in three individual events, Moss ran the first leg of the 1600 relay. Urbana placed second in 4:02.66 with Sadie Melvin, Tessa McManamay and Christy Finney finishing strong.
Northeastern’s boys had a strong day as well. Senior Josh Rowe returns to state in the shot put for the second straight season after finishing fourth with a throw of 51-0½.
Junior Cody Parker qualified for state for the first time with a second-place finish in the high jump. He tied a personal best with a jump of 6-6 and lost by a inch.
“I would have liked to get that 6-7, but after about 13 jumps, I was getting tired,” Parker said. “I made a big leap from last year to this year. I PRed here last year at 6-1. I definitely got faster and worked hard in the offseason.”
Other area state qualifiers included:
• Shawnee senior Carly Gregory placed third in the 300 hurdles (45.64).
• Shawnee senior Josh Richardson placed third in the 3,200 (9:57.16), and his teammate, junior Michael Tymoski, took fourth (10:10.70).
• Shawnee junior Tyler Greenwood finished third in the 1,600 (4:28.39).
• Urbana senior Royce Lucas-Taylor placed second in the discus (158-04).
• On Thursday, Tymoski, Greenwood, Richardson and Dusty Seelig also qualified with a third-place finish in the 3,200 relay (8:10.44).
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0351 or David.Jablonski@coxinc.com.
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