Villa Angela-St. Joseph will be represented at the Division III state track meet by two female student-athletes.
A freshman and a senior will proudly wear the Viking colors at Jesse Owens Stadium in Columbus on the first weekend in June.
Kynadi Byers, in her first year at VASJ, qualified for the state meet by finishing second in the 100M dash at the D-III Navare Regional in a time of 12.82. The freshman is a standout multi-sport athlete.
Senior Toni Beuck will run one more time as a Viking to complete a phenomenal multi-sport career as she qualified in the 400M with a fourth-place finish in a time of 1:00.44.
The VASJ 4X100 relay teams on the boys and girls side each finished sixth at the regionals, missing a berth in the state meet. Jacob Stauffer (discus) and the boys 4X200 relay also participated in the regionals, but were unable to qualify for Columbus.
“I couldn’t be more proud of this team,” VASJ coach Dan LaRocco said.
It is the fourth straight year VASJ has had at least one state qualifier.
LaRocco said he was proud of all the regional qualifiers as well as Beuck and Byers for getting to Columbus.
“I can’t say enough about seniors Alison Sukys, John Hearn and Toni Beuck. They have been the glue that held this program together for the past four years,” LaRocco said.
“They all should take a lot away from their accomplishments for four years.”
