A handful of athletes already have punched their tickets to regionals after the first day of the Division III district meet at Independence on Wednesday.
Cardinal’s Nate Peters, Kirtland’s Will Armstrong and Independence’s boys’ 4×800-meter relay team of Adam Anielski, Brian Calvey, Shane Mathew and Tyler Polman all advanced to next week’s regional meet at Navarre with a top four placement at districts.
The final day of the district meet will take place on Friday.
Peters threw the shot put 44 feet, 8 ½ inches to finish third overall. Armstrong cleared 12 feet on the pole vault to finish third and the Independence 4×8 team finished second with a time of 8:22.98.
Other first day point scorers included Cardinal’s Jordyn Schultz (8th in the discus), Brandon Wicks (8th in the long jump), Trisha Cesar (5th in the pole vault), Stephanie Wolf (7th in the pole vault) and the Cardinal girls’ 4×8 relay team of Ashley Lucarelli, Erin Ross, Caitlyn Lechene and Emily Kruse that placed fifth.
Advancing to Friday’s finals for Cardinal were Ross (100-meter hurdles and 300 hurdles), Wicks (110-meter hurdles, 100-meter dash and 300 hurdles), Hayden Cummins (1600-meter run), Kruse (800-meter run), Ryan Riebe (800-meter run) and the girls’ 4×400-meter relay team of Lucarelli, Ross, Kruse and Lechene.
Independence’s Ethan Blaze (1600-meter run) and Anielski (800-meter run) also qualified for Friday’s finals along with the Blue Devils’ 4×100-meter relay team of Jesse Belitz, Dominic Durdella, Alex Nelson and Kevin Clymer.
Kirtland’s Kevin Cummings (1600-meter run and 800-meter run) and Peter Gabor (800) advanced to the finals along with the boys’ 4×100 and 4×200-meter relay squads. Chaz McPeak, Alex Weaver, Dylan Aquila and Antonio Rini competed in the 4×1 while Rini, Gabor, Johnathon Guenther and McPeak rounded out the 4×2 squad.
Cardinal’s girls’ team finished the first day in sixth place while the Huskies were in eighth on the boys’ side. Independence’s and Kirtland’s boys’ teams were seventh and ninth, respectively.
Friday’s finals will include the boy’s discus and high jump as well as the girls’ long jump and shot put. Final heats will be run for both the boys and girls in the 100 or 110-meter hurdles, 100-meter dash, 4×200-meter relay, 1600-meter run, 4×100-meter relay, 400-meter dash, 300-meter hurdles, 800-meter run, 200-meter dash, 3200-meter run and 4×400-meter relay.
