LEXINGTON — The conditions were just right for a big day at the Division II Regional track meet Saturday at Lexington. A nice, warm day with little wind gave track and field participants a chance to show off their talents and take the step to the state meet.
Unfortunately, for the six local participants from Highland and Utica, it wasn’t a day to remember. No one was able to place high enough to advance to next week’s state meet.
Highland’s Amanda Mosier had probably the most heartbreaking day of her year in the 100-meter hurdles. A false start, which disqualified Wauseon runner Kendall Weber, knocked out one of the runners with better qualifying times than Mosier.
On the restart, Mosier started well, but tripped over the third hurdle, falling to the ground and losing her chance at qualifying. The junior was able to get up and finish the race, but will have to wait until next year for another shot at state glory.
Things didn’t go much better for her teammate, Logan Ebersole. The sophomore finished 13th out of 16 runners in the 3,200 run with a time of 10:49.90. Ebersole did beat his time at districts by almost 20 seconds, but it wasn’t enough to make the podium.
Utica had four individuals participating in the regional, but all had the same fate as the Highland runners.
Junior Nick Naylor had the best placing for the Redskins, finishing 12th in the 800 run in a time of 2:02.39. Naylor was in the middle of the pack with a shot after the first lap, but too many passed him on the second lap for him to qualify.
Sophomore Hannah Brubaker was able to clear the opening height in the pole vault (8-foot-6), but couldn’t get over the bar as they moved it up to 9-0 and finished 14th. Brubaker’s height was 6 inches higher than her qualifying height in the district and best overall for the year.
Junior Monika Smith participated in the discus, struggling on her first two throws. She was just wide of the target area on the first two, resulting in fouls. But, she was able to keep her third throw on line, firing the disc 89-6. That was good enough to place her 15th overall.
The Redskins also had Artie Douglas at regionals. The senior high jumper was unable to clear the opening height of 5-10.
